


The Girl In the Denim Jacket

by ElliottRookArchive (ElliottRook)



Series: Kacieverse [1]
Category: Digimon Adventure
Genre: F/M, Mary Sue
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2001-04-09
Updated: 2020-03-30
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:41:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 30,119
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23379286
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElliottRook/pseuds/ElliottRookArchive
Summary: Kacie Kensingten, a 14-year-old girl from Chicago, discovers she is DigiDestined, and finds herself batting the evil Ferodramon with the rest of the kids, all the while falling hard for one certain blond-haired loner...
Series: Kacieverse [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1681522





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is basically six chapters of self-insertion/wish fulfillment. I was an International before the show made them canon! :P
> 
> Also, Katina/her digimon are not mine. They were created by my best friend, and I've tried searching FFN for the story involving them, _Izzy's First Crush_ , but it's long since been scrubbed from the internet as far as I can tell. What you need to know about Katina is this: her parents traveled the world and she's lived many places, her brother was abusive, it turned out that she was the ninth DigiDestined, and she has now been effectively adopted into Izzy's family. Everything else mentioned in the story can be grasped through context, I think.

Izzy and Katina entered their apartment. It was just after school on an unusually sunny afternoon. Izzy went into his room, set down his bookbag, and booted up his laptop. He poked his head out into the hallway. "Kat-chan, whenever you're ready we can have a Japanese lesson. I'll be in here."

"Okay, just a second." Katina called from her room.

Tentomon looked up at Izzy from the bed. "I think you have an e-mail."

Izzy clicked his blinking mail icon and found one message in his inbox. "Hey, Kat! There's an e-mail from Gennai!"

"What?!!" Katina was at his door in two seconds. The hall rug skidded under her feet a bit as she stopped. Her digimon, Havamon, was not far behind.

"E-mail from Gennai. Come on. He isn't the type that would send personal messages. There's probably news from the DigiWorld."

Katina sat on the bed next to him. Both their Digimon were looking over their shoulders as Izzy opened the message.

_Hello Izzy!_

_I'd love to talk but there isn't much time. There's something strange in the DigiWorld. I can't explain now, but you'll soon know what I'm referring to._

_Goodbye for now, and, as always, please recycle!_

_Gennai_

Katina frowned. "What now?"

Izzy shook his head. "I guess we ought to call the other kids and have them over so we can tell them."

"No," Katina said, laying a hand on his arm. "This seems to be our responsibility."

"And what are we supposed to do when we get there? Go up to every Digimon we see and say 'Excuse me? Have you seen anything strange around here?' Do you know how long that could take, Katina?"

"Izzy," Tentomon intervened, "I don't think it's _that_ bad of an idea..."

Izzy was about to say something, but suddenly there was a bright flash of light, and the two kids and their digimon felt a jerking sensation, like they were being pulled into it.

"Izzy!" Katina screamed.

"Just hang on and hope for a smooth landing!"

_Thud! Thud! Thud!_

Izzy was the first one off his feet and looking around. They had landed in a clearing in the middle of a very hilly forest. He began checking out the vegetation. "I was right! We're in the DigiWorld!"

Katina, who had landed on her side, rolled over onto her back. "Can I open my eyes?"

Izzy smiled. "Affirmative. We're in the DigiWorld, Kat. I guess we are supposed to be here--I'm sorry I yelled at you."

"It's okay." Katina shook her head as she sat up. "Havamon?" she asked, looking around.

"Right here," her digimon said from behind her. "I thought Izzy told you to hope for a _smooth_ landing," he complained, rubbing his backside.

Katina laughed and held out a hand to the digimon. Havamon came up to her and cuddled up to her side.

Tentomon appeared, flying down from above and landing gently. "I didn't think it was that rough, Havamon."

"Tento, behave," Izzy ordered. "You know that the rest of us can't fly."

Katina looked around. "You've seen more of this place than me. Do you know where we are?"

Izzy took a look around. "Not really."

Katina flopped back down on the ground. "Great. It seems to me that every time we get lost in the DigiWorld, we end up fighting some dumb digimon who wants to either eat my friends or marry me."

Izzy pulled her back up by the hand. "Don't worry, Katina, we're simply here to find out..."

"I am Venimon!"

Katina looked toward the voice and screamed at the sight. It wasn't every day one saw a six-foot-tall black snake with hands and an ugly mop of olive-green hair. And very disturbing glowing green eyes. "What did I tell you, Izzy? Let's haul!" She was to her feet in an instant and started to take off, but paused when Izzy didn't follow. " _Izzy_!? Are you _insane_? _Come on_!"

"Wait, Kat! I think he has exactly what we're looking for!"

Katina turned to him. Sure enough, in the tight grasp of the digimon, was a _human_ girl.

"You want her? Let's see you try to take her!"

Izzy looked at Katina. "She has to be part of this. We've got to save her! Come on, guys!"

"Tentomon...digivolve to...Kabuterimon!"

"Havamon...digivolve to...Wizardmon!"

"Electro Shocker!"

"Venom Beam!" Neon green light spouted from Venimon's free hand, breaking up Kabuterimon's attack.

"Magical Beam!"

"Venom Beam!"

Wizardmon's attack held, and the collision point of the two beams wavered back and forth momentarily before Venimon got blasted. He screamed in pain, dropping the girl.

The girl ran toward Katina and Izzy, ducking down behind them. "Humans!" she cried, but then she was silent, watching the goings-on with a mixture of fear and awe.

"Electro Shocker!"

"Magical Beam!"

Both the attacks hit Venimon. He screamed, more shrilly and louder than before. " _Nooo!_ " He suddenly dissolved into tiny bits of information, and the two remaining digimon de-digivolved.

Izzy helped the girl to her feet, and he was mildly surprised to discover, on observation, that she was about two inches taller than him. She was wearing a denim jacket that was a little big for her...but...there was a digivice clipped to it!

Her breathing was heavy, like she'd had the breath scared out of her, which was probably the case. She stared hard at both the kids, and then dared to give voice to the question she desperately wanted a "yes" to. "Are...we...safe?"

Katina and Izzy looked at each other. Izzy nodded. "Relatively."

Suddenly, she exploded with a torrent of not-quite-incoherent questions. "Where am I, what just happened, why am I here, or rather, what am I doing here--what are _we_ doing here, just--just--can you explain what in the world is going on?!!? And could you tell me what this is?" she asked, jerking a thumb toward the digivice. "And I swear, I'll believe whatever you tell me, no matter how ridiculous it sounds, because after the two hours I just went through, nothing could surprise me. Just, please tell me you know all that stuff that I just asked!" Her hands waved about wildly, as if to make visible the exclamation points that she spoke.

"You trust us?" Izzy asked.

"You just saved my butt. I figure you must have my best interests at heart."

"Logical," he said. "My name is Izumi Koushiro, but you may call me Izzy, and this is Izumi Kat, and our digimon, Tentomon and Havamon. Tell us who you are, shiranai hito, and we can explain."

A puzzled expression crossed her face, but soon it switched to pure curiosity. _Cat? What're the odds of knowing a girl named Kat and a girl named Cat in the same lifetime?_ She looked back and forth between them, and then down at the two digimon standing next to them. She realized he'd meant for her to introduce herself. "Um, I'm Kacie. That's K-A-C-I-E, not C-A-S-E-Y. And, thanks for saving me."

"Not a problem," Izzy said. "Let's sit down...this is a long story."

Kacie nodded. "I dropped my bag when he grabbed me, it's over by that tree. Let's go get it and we can sit there."

_~*~  
An hour's worth of explanations later...  
~*~_

"So I'm one of these DigiDestined?"

Katina nodded.

"And this is a good thing?"

"For the most part," Izzy told her.

"How can you be certain of this? What's tipping you off that I don't see?"

"You have a digivice. Only DigiDestined get digivices."

"So, if what you told me is true, I'll soon meet one of these little...digimon... _things_ declaring it and myself to be friends for life?"

"I am not a thing!" Havamon reminded her.

She gave it a puzzled look, not sure what to say.

"Most likely," Izzy informed her before Havamon said anything else.

"Will I ever go home again?"

"Almost definitely."

She nodded, taking it in. _This is too weird,_ she thought. "So where do you go when you go home?"

"Tokyo," Izzy told her.

And at that, there was another blinding flash of light.

* * *

Izzy stood up and looked around. They were back in Tokyo--in his living room. "Kat? Tento? Havamon?"

"What about me?" Kacie stood to her feet.

"Nani?!!?" Izzy whirled to face her. "But...you...we...kuso... _Kaaat!_ She came with us! She's _here!_ "

Katina said something Kacie didn't understand. It sounded like Spanish, and Kacie could tell the general gist was "No way!", but Spanish? _I don't ask. I'm probably better off not knowing anyway._ She and the two digimon stood up and listened to the conversation.

Kacie was, by this time, looking around, hands on her hips. "I thought you said I would go _home_. I hate to inform you, but this _ain't_ Chicago."

"I know that! This is Tokyo!" Izzy cried, momentarily irritated, until it struck him that she was probably a lot more irritated than he was at the moment.

She flipped. "Well, what am I supposed to do here?!" Again her arms were flailing.

"I suppose you'll meet the other DigiDestined." It was the best he could come up with on such short notice.

"Isn't there anything you can do to send me home?" she cried.

"No."

At first Kacie just rolled her eyes and let her arms flop, but then she sighed. "I guess I might as well...if I'm destined to do this, I'm not going to argue--there's no point. I know you said that one day in the DigiWorld is one minute here, but now that I'm here, will I be missed?" _I hope not...anymore I'd rather not be found..._

"Time will run congruently between here and your home, yes, but as to whether you're missed depends on what happens there."

Kacie blew out a breath at her bright red bangs. "With the way things have been going between me and my parents, I don't think they'd even look for me." A frown crossed her face as the bitter words came out.

Katina frowned also, but said nothing.

"Well, we'll find you a place to stay. Let's go back to our place and we can call up the others. Then we can go from there."

Kacie simply nodded. What choice did she have?

* * *

Within an hour, all nine--now ten--DigiDestined were sitting in various spots in the Izumi living room. Kacie was not properly introduced, because a few of them had to hurry home for various reasons. She learned no names, but she did try to remember the faces--from what she understood, she would likely be seeing a lot of them. The one she particularly noticed was the blond teenager with the hot blue eyes. _Gorgeous eyes...hard to forget!_

Izzy showed them the e-mail from Gennai, and then pointed to Kacie. "She may be part of this," he said. "This is Kacie-san, or I guess I should say the tenth DigiDestined."

"What?" Tai asked. "No way! How do you know?"

"Why else would she have a digivice?" Katina reminded him.

 _They talk like I'm not here!_ "Hello!" she cried. "I'm not an object. I am not deaf and I do have feelings!"

"So do I, and I feel confused," Tai said, still ignoring her. "What happened to you today, Izzy?"

 _What is with this kid? I'm the one who said it first, and so he uses it to say his piece and then ignores me completely! And_ why _is he wearing those goggles?_

"Kat and I took a trip into the DigiWorld. Probably Gennai's doing," Izzy explained. "We met Kacie-san, and the very fact that she has a digivice proves she's one of us."

"Look, guys," Kacie said, "I understand that the DigiWorld needs me, and all of you guys, but I don't see how I can do it any good from here in Japan, so what am I supposed to do in the meantime? I have to stay somewhere until we can figure out what in the world is going on."

The other nine kids looked from one to another.

"She'll stay here," Izzy reassured them. "Kat-chan?"

Katina nodded, knowing that he meant Kacie could stay in her room, while Kat stayed with Izzy.

Kacie looked from Izzy to Katina and back again. It really wasn't her choice and she should be happy that she had a place to stay at all. "Thanks."

"No problem, Kacie-san."

Tai began to scuff his foot into the floor. "I guess it's settled then," he said. "There's not much we can do until something happens. The rest of us may as well go home."

Izzy nodded, and with that the meeting was ended. The rest of the kids left.

Kacie turned to Katina. "Where's your room?" Katina motioned silently and led the way. She pointed to the top bunk of her bed.

Kacie set her duffel on it and looked to the other girl for approval, and Katina nodded.

"You don't talk much, do you?" Kacie regretted it the second she finished saying it, because she knew it sounded rude, but this "Quiet Game" thing Katina seemed to have was really getting to her.

Katina chuckled and shook her head in agreement.

"So what do we do now?" Kacie asked.

Izzy stuck his head in the door. "Dinner's at six-thirty, Kacie-san. Let me explain the setup. Kat-chan will stay with me and you can have the guest room to yourself."

"That's not necessary--"

"It's customary."

 _Why does he refer to her room as the guest room? Oh well...I'm in a different country, maybe it's their custom. A "make-you-feel-welcome" thing. He_ did _say it was customary..._ She nodded as he left again, and tried asking Katina an open-ended question in hopes of getting her to talk. "What does that mean, Kacie- _san_? I've noticed him calling me that all day."

Katina, who was rummaging through a drawer for something, did not even look over her shoulder to explain, so Kacie barely heard her say, "It's a sign of respect."

So much for that approach. Katina found what she was looking for and pulled it from the drawer. She held a knee-length shirt out to Kacie. "For later...to sleep in," she said.

Kacie took it and laid it next to her duffel. "Am I allowed to be in Izzy's room?"

Katina blinked, and nodded. She could tell Kacie merely needed to be talked to, and that was something she simply did not want to do. Havamon did not chide Katina for not talking to her, and for that she was grateful.

At the next door in the hall, Kacie knocked.

"Hai?" Izzy asked. "Come in."

Kacie opened the door and peeked around it. He was sitting at his desk facing his laptop. There was a cable linking it to his computer. Tentomon was asleep on his bed.

"Yes, Kacie-san? Did you want something?" He turned toward her.

She bit her lip, knowing that what she was about to say probably wouldn't come out right. "It may sound rude, but, yes, just--someone who talks." There was a tone of resentment in her voice.

Izzy chuckled. "Kat is capable of speech, though she simply prefers not to converse. Believe me, it isn't that she dislikes you."

Kacie nodded, and then glanced at his computer screen. "You have Internet?" she asked.

"What use can you derive from a computer without it?" he retorted, grinning at her.

"That's exactly what I've always thought. I have a laptop in my duffel."

"Really? What kind?" Kacie could literally see the excitement spark in his eyes.

She told him the brand name, and instantly Izzy wanted to see the _American_ laptop and compare. She warned him that although she could use it, she had never even seen the inside of a computer. He laughed and said they wouldn't open it up, (at least not that day,) and so she went and got it. While she was momentarily in Katina's room she noticed that the dark, slender girl was drawing or writing something on some paper that Kacie presumed to be "borrowed" from Izzy's printer. The wooden pencil box filled with colored pastel pencils sitting next to her inclined Kacie to think she was drawing.

Back in Izzy's room, they traded off for a minute or two. Izzy was having a field day checking out her computer, but Kacie just stared at his keyboard in defeat.

"This...is... _not_...right..." She snickered to herself. _I should have thought of this..._

He jerked his head up. "Nani? What's the matter?" For a few seconds he was afraid she'd deleted something.

"No, no, I didn't do anything to it. I _can't_ do anything to it. I think they misprinted your keyboard." She smiled. Then he knew she was joking, and understood.

"Right...you don't understand Japanese, do you?"

"Not the last time I checked." They traded laptops again. "Do you understand English? I mean, obviously you speak it or we couldn't be having this conversation, but can you read and write it?"

"Yes. Most Japanese kids can read and speak English pretty well by the fourth grade."

Kacie nodded. "I see. They don't teach us anything like that at home. I mean, we know English, but usually we don't get to take a second language until junior high."

The fact that they were talking, and talking beyond trivialities, made her happy, made her feel a bit more secure. This DigiDestined stuff scared her, although she admitted it only to herself, and now she knew that she would--could, if she took the trouble to try at it--have a friend in Izzy. Kat, she was not sure of, it was hard to tell if you found approval or disfavor in someone's eyes if they never spoke to you, harshly or otherwise. As for the other kids, she had no way of telling, except for that one kid with the goggles. She knew he did not like her, for whatever reason he had.

After dinner Kacie simply laid on Katina's top bunk, in the borrowed nightshirt, reading.

Katina saw that the book was an unedited--although paperback--edition of Mark Twain's "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court". Katina stared for a few moments, and Kacie held the book out to her. Katina shook her head, but did ask the one question that had popped into her head. "For...a book report?"

Kacie shook her head, smiling and holding back a laugh. "No way! This is just one of my favorite books--I'm reading it for the seventh time. I _wish_ our teachers would assign us a book this cool."

Katina raised an eyebrow. She wasn't shocked, or even surprised, that Kacie would like that book, but it happened to be one of her own favorites.

"Do you read much?" Kacie asked her.

Katina nodded vigorously. "Of course."

"Have you read this?"

Another nod.

"I love the classics. Twain, Dickens, H.G. Wells..."

Katina nodded. She liked those too. "But...you're a teenager..."

Kacie paused, hoping Katina would say more, but when the silence became uncomfortable, she continued. "I know it must seem funny. Usually only older people and librarians like the classics, but I'd say they make up at least half of what I read."

Katina smiled, but left for Izzy's room in silence. Kacie went back to her book.

* * *

The next morning Katina and Izzy decided that Kacie could come to school with them and play "foreign exchange student." Kacie didn't have much time to think over it after that, but decided that it probably was the best idea.

At the school, they went to the main office and got Kacie a pass. The people there told her to stay with Katina, but she could not understand and Izzy had to translate. "Go with _Kat_. Stay with _Kat_ ," he told her. "We'll see each other during library period, right after that is lunch...and we might see Matt, Tai, Mimi, or Sora then as well."

"Okay, I think I can handle that."

It wasn't too bad. Since Kacie understood absolutely no Japanese, Katina gave her a few sheets of paper and a pencil and let her doodle--so long as the teachers couldn't see, or thought she was taking notes.

What bothered Kacie was that fact that all the other kids stared at her like a freak. Even the teachers seemed to look down on her.

She wrote on the paper--"Why are they staring?" The redhead slid it over to Katina and a few moments got her a response.

"They do not like 'outsiders.'"

Kacie frowned, but it was the middle of an algebra class, so she left Katina alone so she could listen. _Could it be that the kid with those goggles that ignored me yesterday simply feels a need to be loyal to his country? But Izzy and Cat here..._

Finally it came to library period, and Kacie returned to the world of the understood.

"Hey Izzy," she said. He was sitting at one of the tables working with his laptop.

"Hello, both of you."

Katina just smiled at Izzy and took the chair next to him. Kacie looked around, and with no librarians in sight, she sat on the table next to the laptop.

"How did it go, Kacie-san?" Izzy asked. He knew Katina would not be likely to tell him much in front of Kacie.

"In one word, boring. I had no idea one could find tic-tac-toe so interesting when one has no idea what's being said."

Izzy smiled. "Do you think you'll be okay for the rest of the day?"

"No problem--but how long do you think this will go on? How long to I have to play like I belong here? I mean, not that I haven't enjoyed it, it's better than home, but it's not right."

"At this point, I have no means by which to investigate. I have yet to hear from Gennai. He probably knows what's going on, after all. He lives in the DigiWorld, Kacie-san, so don't get the idea that I can just go to him and ask him."

"Rats!"

"Hey," another voice cut in. Kacie turned to see the blond hottie from the day before.

"Hello, Matt," Izzy said, purposely saying his name for Kacie's sake.

"Hi Iz, Kat, Kacie-san."

"Hello," Kacie smiled. _Whatta hottie!!! man, this guy...ohhh yeah..._

Matt turned to her. "What have you been doing, Kacie? You can't be hidden like a digimon, in a backpack..." The latter was a joke, although he _was_ curious about it.

She held up the pass she'd been given that morning. "Ever hosted a foreign exchange student?"

Matt raised his eyebrows and nodded in understanding before answering the question. "No, but it's a good cover." He looked around, and noticing the same lack of librarians Kacie had, sat next to her. He let his backpack drop to the table and pulled it around front. "All clear, Tsunomon, but there's no telling when another kid might pop around the corner. If you come out, be ready to go back in."

"Certainly, Matt." A small orange head with a large black horn bounced out of the backpack and sat between him and Kacie.

Kacie looked down. "You're a digimon?" _Duh, Kacie, he--Matt--nice name--is one of the DigiDestined, what else would it be?_

"Yes. I am Tsunomon. When you saw me yesterday, I was Gabumon."

"He de-digivolved," Matt explained.

By this time, Motimon and Cajamon were complaining, so Izzy and Katina both opened their bags and let the small critters poke their heads out, at least.

Izzy explained that earlier they had been Tentomon and Havamon, and then she understood it a bit better. When he was done, he turned to Matt. "Where's Tai?"

"Uh, he said something about an extra-credit assignment."

Katina jerked her head up, eyes wide in semi-shock. "You're kidding. Tai doing extra-credit? No way!"

Kacie twirled a strand of her long ponytail around her finger. _He doesn't want to be here because of me. She did not say it aloud._ As long as she did not say it, no one could confirm it, and she didn't have to feel guilty.

Just then, the bell rang. The three digimon returned to their hiding places, and the four kids ran for the cafeteria.

* * *

Matt, Izzy, Kacie, and Katina sat out on the roof to eat. "Kat doesn't like the noise of the cafeteria," Izzy explained, "So she and I usually eat out here anyway." They were in an isolated spot sitting on the actual roof rather than at one of the tables, but there were plenty of other picnic tables filled with popular kids. Kacie saw "the goggles kid" at one of them, but said nothing.

Kat opened the lunch she had packed for their group of three and divided it up.

"Hey, Izzy, is your math class before or after mine?" Matt asked.

"I believe mine is prior to yours."

"Did the teacher seem a little off to you today, or was it just during my class?"

"Yes, he did. There is a rumor circulating that he is romantically involved with the girl's gym teacher."

Matt laughed. "Now that _is_ off!"

Kat ate in silence, and Kacie didn't talk much more, although she did laugh a lot. This Matt guy was really funny. And cute. And nice--definitely nicer than the goggles kid. And that was just from being around him for forty-five minutes.

_Kacie, Kacie, Kacie. You have got a crush major on this guy. Admit it._

"Kacie?"

"Huh?" She jerked out of her train of thought, however pleasant it may have been. "Oh. What'd you say, Izzy?"

"The bell rang. Go on with Kat. I'll see you later."

Kacie nodded and followed the silent girl.


	2. Chapter 2

Somehow Kacie survived the school day, with no less than ten sheets of notebook paper covered both sides in meaningless doodles. A fair share of them had been hearts with arrows. Katina had noticed one K&M4EVER, but said nothing.

"I'm glad that's over," Kacie told Izzy walking home. _And I thought Chicago public school sucked..._

Izzy wasn't sure if she was joking or not, but he laughed just a little anyway. "It wasn't so bad...today was computer lab day for me..."

"Lemme guess...you're at the head of that class?" Kacie was quick to notice things anyway, and his computer expertise was more than a little hard to miss.

Izzy reddened. "Not to sound pretentious or anything, but..." he trailed off, having said enough to answer her question.

Kacie laughed, and then sought to reassure him that he wasn't bragging. "You can't help when you've got talent. And I _did_ ask."

Katina's eyes followed the ground, but her ears followed the conversation.

A voice emitted from Izzy's backpack. "Is it safe now?"

Izzy sweatdropped. "No! We're not even halfway home. Now hush, Motimon."

Again, Kacie laughed, half at the Digimon and half at the look on Izzy's face. _These Digimon are kinda cute!_ "It must be fun," she said wistfully.

"What must be fun?" Izzy asked.

"Having a digimon."

"It's more than just fun, Kacie-san, it's a DigiDestined's destiny."

"I realize that, but that doesn't mean you can't enjoy it," Kacie said.

"I agree, Izzy!" Motimon said.

Izzy sweatdropped again. "Will you be quiet? You know I care about you, but sometimes I feel more like I'm raising a child than being protected!"

Katina snickered quietly, hearing the banter between the two.

At last they got home, and the first thing that both Izzy and Katina did was open their backpacks and let out the two small creatures.

"Motimon...digivolve to...Tentomon!"

"Cajamon...digivolve to...Havamon!"

It rather confused Kacie to see the two small creatures change. "That's how digivolving works?" she asked Izzy.

"Yes. Each digimon has six levels of digivolution. Baby, in-training, rookie, champion, ultimate, and mega."

 _Dollar answers to nickel questions. At least it's a bargain._ Kacie smiled inwardly at the thought. "Which level are they at now?"

"Rookie. All our digimon tend to stay at the rookie level once they get there, except for things like today, when we need them to be smaller, and in battles, when we need them to be stronger and tougher."

"Except for Gatomon," Havamon reminded him.

Izzy nodded. "Yes. Gatomon is at her champion level."

Kacie nodded, a gesture she was beginning to become very familiar with. She had already learned quite a bit about these small, odd creatures, but she was sure she was far from finished. The thought crossed her mind as to which one Gatomon was, but she figured she'd find out later one way or another.

Katina left to change out of her uniform, and take her schoolbooks out of her backpack. When she returned, Izzy turned to Kacie. "After lunch Tai told me that we--all ten of the DigiDestined--are supposed to meet at the park as soon as possible after school."

"I see. And then what?" _I don't wanna go...the goggles kid will be there, too..._

"Who knows, with Tai? Probably to ask if I've heard from Gennai, and give everyone a recap of the situation. Joe, Kari, and T.K. all go to different schools than the one we do."

"Well, let's get going," Kacie said. "No point in standing around."

"True." Izzy left to change, and again Kacie was alone with Katina. No words were exchanged until Izzy's return.

"Let's go," he said, opening the door for them to do so.

"Lead the way," Kacie agreed.

They walked, Kacie asking questions about Digimon and Tokyo, brought on by things they ran across or that the digimon said, until finally Izzy pointed out the gate that led into the park.

"I take it that's where we're supposed to--"

Kacie was cut off by another one of those blinding flashes of light. "What's happening?!" she screamed in alarm.

"We're coming in for a landing, that's what!" Izzy yelled. "Careful, Kat-chan! Ouff!"

Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!

"This is becoming all too familiar," Kacie moaned. She sat up and looked around. "Uh, guys..."

"Yes?" Izzy questioned.

"We have company."

Izzy looked around and was greeted by the familiar faces of their fellow DigiDestined.

They were looking about and making similar comments. Tai was the first to stand to his feet. "Are we all here?" he asked of no one in particular. A chorus of "yes's" sounded out as the others took a count mentally.

Izzy looked over at Kacie, feeling a bit responsible for her. "Are you okay?"

She nodded at him. _There's so many people...one-on-one is one thing, or if I know everyone, but_ this _I do not like..._

Mimi was shaking her head. "No! Nonononononono this isn't right!"

"It never seems right when we come here, Mimi, but there must be something we have to do," Sora reminded her gently.

Tai stood and turned to Izzy. "Did you ever hear anything more from Gennai?"

Izzy shook his head. "Not a thing, Tai."

"It must have something to do with you," Tai said, pointing a finger right in Kacie's face. The act was innocent enough, but it made Kacie feel like he was condemning her. She wanted to just crawl into a hole somewhere and fill the opening behind her, but she had work to do, or she wouldn't be there in the DigiWorld. _May as well get used to this kid. Let him know where I stand right away._

She blinked up at him, and pushed his hand away. "If you must point at me, could you at least do it from far away enough so I don't have to cross my eyes to see your finger?"

He didn't answer her in any way, verbally or with an expression. Instead he turned to the rest of the group and began rallying them together to do whatever it was that they were supposed to do--although he didn't know what it was at that time.

Izzy took the opportunity to properly introduce Kacie to each of the kids, since it had not been done the day before.

"Kacie, this is Kamiya Taichi, better known as Tai. He's our leader, and Agumon."

_So the goggles kid is the leader? Does that give him the right to snub me just because I'm the new girl?_

"And Takenouchi Sora, with Biyomon,"

_Tomboy? Yeah, most likely._

"Kamiya Hikari, Tai's younger sister--call her Kari, and Gatomon,"

_She looks nice..._

"Takaishi Takeru--preferably T.K., and Patamon,"

 _What an_ adorable _kid--but I bet he doesn't like that!_

"Tachikawa Mimi and Palmon,"

_A Japanese cowgirl? In pink? There are some days I just don't ask..._

"Kido Joe and Gomamon--Joe's studying to be a doctor, so if you get hurt or feel sick, come to him,"

_Preppy!_

"And you know Ishida Matt."

 _And he's_ still _a hottie! they don't make 'em like this back home,_ that _is for sure!_ Kacie thought. "Pleased to meet you all," she said. "But please forgive me if I have trouble with all your names."

"Enough with the chitchat," Tai said. "We need to get going." It was less than five minutes before the ten kids and nine digimon were walking--again, as Mimi pointed out.

Kacie talked with any one person who would talk, but if a third party jumped in she would drop out of the conversation, and fall to the back of the group. She didn't talk enough with anyone to really form a concrete opinion about them, except for Matt. Truthfully, she tried to fix it that way, because she really did want to get to know him, but she was at the same time trying not to be obvious about it. _Why do guys have to be so good at complicating a girl's life?_

It was around five when they stopped for a rest. "Does anybody have food?" Tai asked.

Joe had a little food in his emergency bag, but that was it. Tai said that they should try to ration it, but Izzy was quick to point out that it wouldn't go far among nineteen stomachs even for _one_ meal.

"Can everyone last 'til we stop for the night if we rest longer now?" Tai asked. There was a general agreement, so it was decided to follow that course of action.

Kacie sat under a tree and watched as the digimon began playing some game she'd never heard of. Matt came and sat next to her. It surprised her, and she was sure he was doing it only out of politeness. "No, it's okay, go with your friends..."

He furrowed his eyebrows. _Why would she say that? No one_ asked _me to sit by her._ "Look, you're one of the group now. That doesn't mean you have to like all of us, but we all need to at least be civil for the most part, and making a friend or two among the group couldn't hurt you. You've been awfully quiet--almost like Kat."

She laughed, knowing that it was not an insult, at least not one meant to hurt her feelings. "I never have been one for large groups. I'd rather spend half an hour talking and getting to know one person than hours and hours of playing a game with a large group." _Change the subject, he won't know what to make of that "getting to know someone" remark! Not that I don't want to get to know him...ohh...this is so confusing!_ "Speaking of games, what are they playing?" She pointed to the digimon.

Matt watched for a second. "It's some sort of tag. T.K. and Kari could explain it, because they've actually played it."

She nodded. "You know, I don't think anyone is liking the idea of another kid to worry about...I feel like I'm being a burden."

He frowned. "Don't do that. I mean, it's true, none of us were expecting a tenth DigiDestined, but it's not like we have a choice in the matter, and neither do you. There's someone bigger out there making the decisions and they know what they're doing. There's obviously a reason we don't know yet for your being here, and once we figure it out the others might be a bit more friendly. Like Kat--Izzy was the only one of us who really paid attention to her until we knew she was DigiDestined, and even then no one was _really_ friendly to her until she saved all our necks. All I'm saying is, don't feel bad." Matt wasn't sure why he was telling her any of it.

 _Why is he doing this? Could it possibly be that he--_ she left the thought unfinished. She thought this guy was really nice as well as having a gorgeous pair of eyes, and he seemed to think her okay, if nothing better, and she didn't want to jinx any luck she might be having with him.

She and Matt went on talking, and although they were stopped there for only half an hour, by the end of that time Kacie was pretty sure she could count him a friend.

As they walked Izzy noticed Kacie was still talking to Matt. He did not try to cut in, thinking that it was probably a good idea for Kacie to get to know as many of them as possible. It could not hurt for her to have at least one other friend besides himself and Katina.

They walked until eight o'clock or so, and then they ate Joe's rations. Tai said that they should try to find a place to sleep. Gomamon found a dry cave--small, but just big enough for all of them.

They all crowded in, and Joe offered to take first watch. "Besides, the watches will be shorter from now on," he said, gesturing toward Kacie.

"Not until Kacie gets her digimon," Izzy said. "She doesn't have enough experience in the DigiWorld to do it now."

Tai agreed with Izzy, but Kacie was sure this was because he thought she just didn't have enough experience, period. Not that she thought a whole lot of him, either.

Kacie laid down near the back of the tiny cave and tried using her duffel for a pillow. Not the most comfortable, but definitely better than laying her head on the cave floor. She took off her jacket and tried to use it as a blanket. It wasn't cold outside, but it was a psychological thing.

She rolled over so she wasn't facing the back wall anymore and found herself again next to Matt. He was laying on his stomach perpendicular to her, chin on his folded arms. "Hello again," he said.

"Hi," she said, for lack of anything more intelligent. _How is it possible for me to get butterflies around him when we were only introduced this morning? He is the first guy who seems to be interested in me, perhaps in_ that _way, and he may be being awfully friendly to me, but_ still _, we hardly know each other..._

"Good night." He turned his head on its side and tried to sleep.

 _Well, at least I didn't embarrass myself in front of him. It would have been nice if he'd stayed up to talk, though._ Kacie yawned. _Then again, I'm feeling pretty tired myself._

Throughout the night, no matter how much noise was made in switching watches, Kacie slept through it, not being a light sleeper. It was when she awoke that she got her biggest surprise.

"Mmm..." she mumbled, in the state halfway between dreams and wakefulness. _Nice dream...Matt..._ She opened her eyes and half-expected him to be sitting right close to her, like he had been in her dream, but he was exactly where he had been last night, a few feet away. What _was_ sitting right close to her was a little purple head.

In a girl's voice, the head greeted her. "Good morning, Kacie."

"Huh? What in the-- _aaah_!" she screamed loud and clear...forgetting that they were in a cave...where it...echoed...

Jumping back and sitting up in one motion, she clapped a hand over her mouth, staring widely.

Matt looked at her, smiling. He wasn't holding back laughter, but it was obvious he found the whole scene amusing. "Looks like you have a digimon."

The little purple critter began to bounce up and down. "That's right. I am Jacamon!"

She reminded Kacie of Tsunomon from the day before, only purple instead of orange around the face, sky-blue eyes, and small horselike ears rather than a horn. "Whatever you are, you scared the daylights outta me," she said, finally finding her voice.

The other kids were watching them--them as in Kacie, Jacamon, _and_ Matt. Tai was laughing his head off over the fact that she had been so scared of a purple head no larger than a basketball, but Kacie chose to ignore him. There was some real discord between the two.

The Digimon smiled. "I told you, Kacie. I am Jacamon, and we're friends for life!"

Kacie watched her digimon-- _her_ digimon--bounce in happy little circles around her. Then she looked up at Izzy, who was smiling broadly. It wasn't an "I-told-you-so" smile, but it definitely said "See?-You- _can_ -trust-me".

Just then Jacamon jumped right into Kacie's lap, regaining her attention.

"I have a question for you," Kacie told her.

"What is it?" Jacamon looked up at her and smiled brightly.

"How did you know my name?"

"I've known that. I've been waiting for you."

"Oh." Kacie didn't bother to continue. She knew she'd never understand.

Then Matt asked a question of the new digimon. "You're at your In-Training level, aren't you?"

"Yes, I am." At that she jumped out of Kacie's lap and went back to going in little circles. _Boingy-boingy-boingy-boingy..._ Kacie thought. _So now I have a friend for life. She is kinda cute._

Ten minutes later, when Tai finally quit laughing, he said that they should hurry and get a move on.

Kacie simply put her jacket on and was done. She had not taken anything out of her bag, and had slept with her shoes on. She waited on the others.

"Where are we going?" Jacamon asked.

"I'm not sure. I'm just following the rest of them. I don't dare go alone. I would have no idea where to go."

"Oh." Jacamon continued bouncing in circles until Kacie began to walk forward with the rest of them, and then she made an extra-large bounce right up in front of Kacie's head, and then Kacie caught her in her arms.

"Whoa! If you had legs I'd say you have springs in them."

"But I don't have legs," Jacamon reminded her.

"In that case you'd rather not hear what I'm thinking." _Rubber. Butt._

"Oh. Hey, you'll get awfully tired carrying me in your arms, won't you?"

"No matter. You'd get tired walking--uh, bouncing--uhh--"

"Bouncing!" The little critter bounced out of her arms and began doing the little loops around her again. "I was just thinking, I might fit in your bag there."

"Maybe," Kacie acknowledged. She swung the bag around front, so that it was hanging around her neck. That way she didn't need to stop walking and slow everyone else down. She unzipped the main part of it and rummaged through her stuff, with the purple critter going in circles incessantly. It made Kacie smile as she rearranged the duffel's contents. Laptop against the back, flashlight in the outer pocket...there!~ She zipped up the sides and a little bit of the top. "Hop in," she said, "No pun intended."

Jacamon laughed and bounced right in. Kacie had created a sort of nest inside the bag into which Jacamon just fit, and out of which she could see in all directions. Now Kacie pushed the duffel back so it hung at her side again, and her hand rested on Jacamon's head. (Or rather, just on Jacamon.) The small creature giggled and looked forward with the rest of them to see where they were headed.

Matt fell back to where she was. "Hey. How are you two getting along?"

"Just great!" Jacamon said.

"Yeah," Kacie agreed. She ran her finger over the critter's soft fur. "We're fine." She looked up at Matt, and thought she caught him looking at her. He averted his gaze to Jacamon before she could be sure.

"I wonder what she'll be when she digivolves."

Jacamon thought it was a stupid thing to wonder. "I'll be a digimon!"

Matt laughed. "I know. I mean what _kind_ of digimon. Like, see Gabumon up there?"

"Yeah?"

"When he digivolves, he turns into Garurumon."

"Oh, I get it. Hey, Kacie?"

"Hmm?"

"Would you mind if I got to know the rest of the digimon?"

"Go right ahead." Kacie was a little sorry to see her go, but she wasn't going to pass up the opportunity to talk to Matt alone.

Another bounce, and several quick forward leaps, and Jacamon was caught up to Patamon and carrying on a conversation.

"She's so sweet," Kacie said. "I was worried we wouldn't get along."

"Nah. Once you meet a good digimon they're pretty hard not to like."

"There are people like that," Kacie said. "And there are people who are the exact opposite." She quickly glanced at Tai, at the head of the group.

"Yeah. I know what you mean. Kind of like my brother, he's really hard not to like--"

"Your brother?"

"What? You mean there's no family resemblance between me and T.K.?"

Kacie thought over it carefully. _T.K.--Tak--Takeru. T.K.--T.K. is the younger blond boy..._ "Oh! Yes. There is, but I just assumed that Izzy and Cat, and Tai and Kari were the only ones that were related to anyone else within the group."

"No, T.K. is my ototo-chan. Little bro."

Kacie shook her head. "So much to keep straight. Nineteen new people within twenty-four hours, plus thrown in with the fact that I'm either in Tokyo or the Digital World instead of at home..." she trailed off, leaving him to picture it.

"At least you have someone else who knows what's going on. You should have seen us when we first came to the DigiWorld. No one knew which way was up." Matt grinned, remembering.

"What happened?"

"Well, all of us except Kat, and Kari, who both came later, were at soccer camp. Camp, as in summer. As in August first. We're all just going about our business, and all of a sudden it starts snowing."

Kacie tilted her head. "In _August_?"

"Yeah. Then the Digivices fall out of the sky, and we get sucked into the DigiWorld and attacked by a big old Kuwagamon that thinks we'd make a nice lunch."

Kacie shook her head. "And I thought I had it weird. I was walking home from school, and I had even made the last turn. I could see my house, and then this multi-colored beam of light just shoots down out of the clouds. It was weird, because even though it was overcast, everything was as bright as if it were the middle of summer, and it was even starting to feel warm. Chicago isn't exactly known for its high temperatures, you know."

"Wind. Chicago is known for wind," Matt remembered.

"I know. At any rate, the really weird part was that no one else noticed. No one was taking off their jackets, or coats, or anything, and usually when it gets that bright everyone whips out their designer sunglasses, but nothing. Like I was the only one who could see any of it. I got the distinct impression that I _was_ the only one who could see any of it. This light beam inches toward me, and when it hits me I feel a jerk and all I can think is that someone is trying to rape me or mug me or something, so I hold on to my duffel very tightly and I'm all on the defensive. Then the ground just drops out from under me, or so I think until I look down and see I'm floating. And I screamed, but no one heard, no one saw, nothing."

"It's weird, flying through the air like that," Matt agreed.

"You can say that again. At any rate, next thing, I land on my duff, still clutching my bag. I look around, and I start to wonder if the fruit on any of the trees is safe, because usually at that hour I am sitting at my computer, chatting in some chatroom, eating something. After-school snack. Then the digivice falls out of the sky and hovers in front of me. I tried to run from it, but it was faster, and it was in front of me no matter how fast I went, so I took a hold of it. It beeped, and then I looked at its little screen and a little screensaver kind of thing was flashing across it, and it read, 'Hello Kacie'. So I knew it was mine, and I clipped it to my jacket until I had time to fiddle with it. I mean, I had time, but I think I was too busy thinking about the fruit to try anything else. I spent about an hour and a half wandering through that forest, and then that Venimon thing came into sight. I set my duffel down and ran to it to ask...I wasn't sure what I was going to ask, but at least it would be a start. As I get closer I realize he's not human, he's more of a six-foot snake with hands, but he was black, and black snakes aren't poisonous, right?" She rolled her eyes at Matt and he nodded, smiling.

"We've all assumed stupid things while in the DigiWorld."

"Anyway, I ask him where I am, and he asks what sort of Digimon I am. It confused me at the time, but I get it now. I tell him my name is Kacie Kensingten, and so he goes around calling me KacieKensingtenmon until I tell him I'm no mon. So then he picks me up, and I started screaming for somebody to please come help me, and that's when Cat and Izzy arrived on the scene, and you know the rest."

"I'm glad they did, I hate to think what might have happened to you otherwise."

" _You_ hate to think? It scares _me_ even more!"

 _Yes, I do hate to think it..._ "You're safe now. You have Jacamon, and me, and the rest of the kids."

"Well..." Again Kacie's eyes looked to Tai. _I'm not too sure I have_ all _the rest of the kids..._

Matt followed her glance. _Oh._ "He may not like you as a close friend, but he would not let anything happen to you if he could help it. You _are_ DigiDestined, and he just has to accept it. He knows it's his responsibility to look out for _all_ of us. He's the leader."

"How did he end up leader?"

"He was the one with the peppiest pep talks, and he's the one that everything happens to first. First to get his crest. First to have his digimon go to champion, and ultimate. First to come home--even if it was only for a day." Matt laughed at the memory.

Kacie didn't quite get it, but smiled anyway. It sounded funny. "Oh. I see."

Matt shook his head. "Seriously, he just did. The only one of us that ever cared to fuss over it was me, but not because I wanted to be leader. I just thought that maybe we'd be best off with no leader, you know, taking a vote on all the important decisions."

Kacie nodded. "So do we ever do anything besides walk around the DigiWorld?"

"Yeah. Whenever we run into something, or someone. We battle the bad guys and learn from the good ones, and when there are no more bad guys for the time being, we get to go home and miss each other and the days in the DigiWorld."

"You like it here better than home?"

"Sometimes. We definitely have more freedom here. Watch Tai and Sora tonight and see if you get my drift."

"I get the drift just from watching them right this instant." Kacie pointed ahead. The pair was walking together, holding hands, blushing a bit.

"That's nothing. Hey, so go on, what's it like at your home?"

"Lonely. I don't have a lot of friends, and I avoid my parents, so the only company I have is Marta."

"Marta?" Matt asked. _If_ that _name didn't come out of nowhere..._

"The maid. Fascinating old lady. She's been with our family since before we were a family. She was my mother's nanny--of course, she was only in her twenties then."

"You guys have a maid?"

"Just the one, and she lives with us. Don't look at me like that. We're not millionaires, my dad just happens to be some high-up executive guy. I don't even know what company or exactly what he does. I never bothered to ask, and of late, I don't really care."

Matt could sense that he was treading on _very_ thin ice, so he tried to change the subject. "Why _do_ you have so few friends?"

"I was never big on the idea of a lot of friends, and ever since my best friend moved away when I was nine..." she trailed off again. _Kat. I miss her. I wonder what she'd think of all this._

 _Oops. I don't think that I helped any._ "Ah. I see."

Kacie continued. "We didn't live in Chicago then, in fact, we moved just after that. We lived down in Arkansas, and if you should ever move to America, I will definitely recommend the city over the country. Chicago's the greatest, but any city is better than none."

"Kat lived in America, and she's just the opposite...of course, she loves the outdoors..."

Kacie made a face. "Not that I have anything against the outdoors, but it's so much easier to blend in and be ignored in the city. In Arkansas I'd pop into the grocery store to buy a comic book and the checker and I would have a conversation about how stupid the truckers were, always bringing the magazines in late."

Matt grinned. "And you didn't like that?"

Kacie rolled her eyes. "It wasn't so bad, I guess, but after that, he'd usually plaster this _huge_ old grin over his zit-covered face and ask me for a date..."

Matt sweatdropped. "Yeah, that could definitely make a difference..."

"It did."

"But seriously, didn't you ever have any fun?"

"Only when I was with my friend. We would have a blast every time we were together. We'd go outside and go up to this field and spread out a blanket and lay there and just talk."

"About what?"

"Everything from cabbages to kings. Mostly other people, friends of ours, guys...how stupid they happened to be being in not noticing us at that moment in time...of course, she was always too shy to try doing anything about it--I should talk. I wasn't much better when it came down to guys."

"Really? I wouldn't have thought that..."

"Of course you wouldn't. That all changed when we moved to Chicago. I guess you could say the move boosted my confidence somehow. Not that it did any good, I'm still single. Of course, with most of the guys at my school, that's a good thing...a _very_ good thing..."

The expression on her face made Matt laugh. "Well, now you have new friends, and plenty of them."

"Speaking of _my_ friends, I've been talking an awful lot about myself. Your turn."

Matt tilted his head. She'd caught him off guard, not something that happened to him a lot. "There's not much to say. I was born in Tokyo, and I've lived with my dad ever since my parents split. I was younger then--just barely twelve. T.K. went with Mom, but he was even littler--like, five. We don't see each other as much as we'd like."

"I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault that they--"

"No, I mean I'm sorry for making you bring it up. I know I don't like to talk about my family."

"No biggie." _Why isn't it a biggie, Matt? You don't usually say this much about it to anyone._

They walked in silence for a few minutes. "He's really special to you, isn't he?" Kacie asked, nodding towards T.K..

"Yeah. I'm his big brother, right? I have to look after him."

Kacie just nodded. "I don't have any younger siblings. Basically, I'm an only child. Don't call me lucky for that." _I hate being an only child..._

"I wouldn't. I know what it'd be like to not have T.K.."

"Thank you--"

"Everybody stop!" Tai called from the front.

"What's the matter, Tai?" Kari asked.

"Kat heard something, and the last time Kat heard something we were almost eaten by a snake woman. You remember."

Kacie felt the sweatdrop float down her neck. Quietly she asked, "Uh, Matt, would you care to--"

"Later. I'll explain later." Everyone's ears were on edge, and then the sound could be heard. Were those--battle cries? It sounded like a troop of soldiers training.

Everyone looked around at all the others, not knowing what to do.


	3. Chapter 3

"What in the world--" Sora said.

"I don't know, but I say we check it out," Tai said, and tried to lead them off toward the sound.

"No!" Izzy cried. "It could be dangerous."

"Izzy," Katina said, gently reminding him. "We've already made so much noise...if it hasn't heard us, it is stone deaf, or much louder and further away than it sounds."

He nodded. "Still--"

"Aw, come on," Tai said. "There's practically nothing we can't handle. Let's at least check it out."

Izzy nodded hesitantly, and the group veered to the right, in the direction of the sound. Within minutes they had reached a cliff.

"Don't get too close to the edge, T.K.," Matt warned.

"You too, Kari," Tai said.

They all looked over the edge into the valley below.

Kacie clapped a hand over her mouth so as not to scream. _It_ figures _!_ She had never seen anything--so--

"There's hundreds of them!" Joe cried.

"Actually, more like twenty-five, but yes, there are a lot," Izzy said matter-of-factly.

"What are they?" T.K. asked.

Someone's digimon began to answer, but Kacie spat it out first. "Venimon. Those are Venimon. That's what caught me day before yesterday."

Sure enough, there were twenty-four of them plus their "drill sergeant", so to speak, and they were going through basic exercises.

"What an introduction to the Digital World," Sora cracked.

"Tell me about it," Kacie said. "So now what?"

"Now we fight!" Tai yelled.

"No, we should--" Izzy began, too late.

All twenty-five of the Venimon had heard Tai.

And suddenly, all twenty-five were on the warpath. "In the name of King Ferodramon, we will destroy!" They started to slither up the cliff, and Kacie was amazed to see just exactly how agile they were. _Or maybe they're just covered in slime and they_ stick _to the cliff wall!_

"At least they gave us a warning, come on, let's go!" Mimi cried.

Tai glared at her. "Are you nuts? I said let's fight, so let's fight!"

"Yeah!" most of the kids agreed.

"Yeah," Kacie said, softly but forcefully. "They only got the better of me once and it will _not_ happen again."

Only Matt heard her, but he was impressed with the attitude the redheaded girl displayed. It wasn't courage, at least not in the degree Tai had it, but this was more of a--stubbornness? An unwillingness to leave herself unavenged? Something like that.

The Venimon approached, and as soon as one got too close, Tai yelled, " _Now!_ "

"Pepper Breath!" Agumon let out the fiery energy ball.

Kacie heard several other attacks, but didn't think long enough to attach them to any particular digimon. Jacamon leapt up into her arms. "I'll protect you!"

Kacie realized that when Tai referred to the kids fighting, it was more of them ordering their digimon around. If that was what it meant, then she knew what to do. "Jacamon, there!" She pointed and the digimon dropped to the ground and bounced really high, up to the evil digimon's eyes.

"Boom Bubble! _Pah_!"

Kacie watched the digimon take a deep breath and let the Venimon have it in his eyes. The way Jacamon looked while doing this was so cute she would have laughed had they not been in such danger.

"Lightning Paw!" Gatomon attacked the Venimon that Jacamon had been harassing, and it dissolved into information. "Nice distraction, Jacamon!" the digimon told her.

They had only taken down about four of the Venimon, so Tai held up his digivice. "Everyone digivolve!"

Kacie watched in awe as all the fuzzy little creatures became great warriors. Quite a confusing sight to watch nine digivolutions at once, especially when two were Warp Digivolves. Now where the rookie digimon had been stood WarGreymon, MetalGarurumon, Garudamon, Angewomon, MagnaAngemon, Zudomon, MegaKabuterimon, Lillymon, and Wizardmon. They all began to fight, taking down the Venimon right and left.

Jacamon leapt up into Kacie's arms. "Me too, please? I want to be a rookie!"

Kacie noted that her digimon had been one stage behind all the rest, so she felt a little sorry for her. _Jacamon must have felt like a little kid among teenagers, and now it's worse, being a little kid among adults._

"I'd love to help you digivolve...but I haven't the slightest clue..."

Her digivice began to beep. She unclipped it from her bag's strap and Jacamon jumped down. Light began to go from the digivice towards Jacamon.

"Whoa! I guess here we go!" Kacie simply held the device toward her digimon. A warm feeling rushed over her as the light began to surround Jacamon.

"Jacamon...digivolve to... _Cabaiyomon_!"

Where the purple basketball had been there was now a creature reminiscent of Patamon, only purple, with horse ears, a mane much like Gomamon's only fuschia pink, and a tail that could not be described by comparing it to any other digimon, at least not any that Kacie had seen. It was kind of like the mane only in longer strands.

"Wow...I helped you do _that_?"

"Yes, of course, but there's no time to talk. I have Venimon to help destroy!"

Cabaiyomon had bounded off to help before Kacie could protest. Kacie joined the rest of the kids and followed suit, cheering for Cabaiyomon as much as any of the others were cheering for their champion, ultimate or mega digimon.

"Violet Wave!" Cabaiyomon cried, and two beams of energy erupted from her mouth and twisted around one another, blasting toward the Venimon.

"Yeah! Go Cabaiyomon!"

"Violet Wave!"

All the other digimon seemed to be busy with their own Venimon, so Cabaiyomon kept mercilessly attacking the one she'd gotten a hold of.

"Violet Wave!"

"I give up!" The Venimon dissipated into nothingness, and Cabaiyomon dropped to the ground, exhausted.

Kacie ran for her just as MetalGarurumon and WarGreymon took out the last two Venimon standing. "Cabaiyomon! Cabaiyomon! Are you all right?" Kacie took the small creature into her arms and cradled her. She ran her fingers through her mane. "Cabaiyomon?"

"I'm all right. I just took down a Venimon, single-handedly..."

"Yes, yes you did. I'm very proud of you."

The compliment seemed to give Cabaiyomon new strength, because she leapt out of Kacie's arms and started to sing. "I-beat-a-Ven-i-mon! I-beat-a-Ven-i-mon!"

Kacie turned and saw that the rest of the digimon were de-digivolving.

"So that's how we got Motimon and Cajamon...I get it..."

Kari and T.K. hugged their digimon, and all of the digis got some form of praise. Havamon seemed content to see Katina smile at him in approval. He cuddled up to her side with a look of personal pride on his face. "We can really take those bad guys down, huh, Kat?"

Katina simply nodded.

Matt and Gabumon came over to Kacie. "Nice work. I can't believe a rookie took down one of those Venimon all by herself..."

"Well, I did, so you better believe it!" Cabaiyomon let her song trail off and looked up at Matt. "I told you I'd be a digimon."

He laughed. "So I see."

Kacie stood up from her kneeling position. "So now what do we do?"

Apparently someone else had voiced the question simultaneously, because Tai was yelling. "We keep walking, what else?"

"Wait everyone! I have an e-mail!"

Everyone was crowded around Izzy instantly.

He clicked for his mail, realized who it was from, and blushed. "Sorry, everyone, false alarm. It's not Gennai."

Everyone else sweatdropped. "Izzzzzzzzzzyyy..." Tai said.

"Hey! There's another message coming in! _This_ one's from Gennai!"

Kacie suddenly perked up. "Didn't you say he's the one who knows what's going on?"

"More often than not, yes, Kacie-san," Izzy said as she plunked down next to him.

It surprised her to have the Japanese suffix attached to her name again. It had been a while since she'd heard it because Matt did not use it. _Is it because he does not like me, or is it because what he feels for me is beyond respect?_

Izzy plugged in a mike procured from his backpack. "Okay, everyone, I'm opening the video clip."

Gennai's face popped up on the screen. "Hello, kids! By now you have found the tenth DigiDestined. There's nothing really special about her as compared to the rest of you. She's just a little late in showing up. She will be needed, however, very soon."

_Oooh. This sounds just ducky._

"I can't tell you now, just exactly what will happen, but I can tell you this, the ancient prophecies say she'll know it's her time to shine when she gets her Crest. Oops--I have something I forgot to do that must be attended to right away! Bye-bye, and please recycle!"

The transmission cut off.

Kacie's arms went flailing once again. "Aaaah! Just when I was getting somewhere the stupid thing cuts off!" Then, as suddenly as she had started, she was done, and she hung her head in defeat. "Fine. Let's keep going. No point in hanging around."

Tai led the way, and everyone followed.

Matt cocked his head towards this new girl. She seemed so resigned to her fate. She never made a fuss over anything, once she was satisfied nothing could be done about it, but she always made _sure_ that there were no other options. It wasn't stubbornness, but what was it?

"What are you thinking about?" she asked him.

"Oh, nothing...just trying to figure out what your Crest might be."

"Can it be pre-determined?"

"Well, each of our Crests is representative of our most notable quality. My Crest is the Crest of Friendship, Izzy's is Knowledge, Kat's is Pure Heart, T.K.'s is Hope...are you getting the idea?"

"Yeah, I think so...but I'm not sure what mine will be any more than you are...unless you have an idea...?"

"I'm not sure. I see a quality in you but it doesn't at all sound like a Crest. Of course, most of the Crests can be used the wrong way, have a negative effect. Tai's courage, for example, can be overdone and become just plain recklessness."

"So mine could go either way?"

"No. When you get it, it will be positive, but if it is used the wrong way it could make a lot of bad things come down."

Kacie nodded. "I understand."

At this point Cabaiyomon came bouncing back to her.

 _Even if she digivolved she still likes to jump around._ "What is it, Cabaiyo?"

Cabaiyomon was not displeased with having the 'mon' dropped from her name. "I was just wondering if I still fit in your bag."

"Oh." Kacie unzipped her duffel and Cabaiyomon jumped up and into it.

"Perfect fit. Thanks." The small creature nestled down into the bag and quickly fell asleep. Kacie zipped the bag up a bit more so that all that poked out was her head.

"Surrogate blanket," she joked to Matt.

He grinned at the small, sleeping digimon. "She must be exhausted. She took down that Venimon all alone, and earlier it took Kabuterimon and Wizardmon to do that. She needs the sleep. It's probably taking all her strength to stay in her rookie form."

 _Oh, but...she doesn't need to do that...will it hurt her?_ "Is she doing that for me?"

"Digimon are very loyal."

"I wouldn't mind, if she were to de-digivolve."

"It's a point of pride, I think. Like she's not worthy of your respect if she did de-digivolve."

"But she's all worn out."

"Don't worry, she'll be okay so long as she sleeps a bit."

Kacie nodded. Obviously he knew more about it than she did. They went on in silence, and she found it strangely comforting to not be able to hear anything. No noise meant no battle cries. No battle cries meant no Venimon.

It was early when Tai said they should set up camp. They found another cave, although this one was more of a front room to a much larger cave.

Matt left for a few minutes to chill, alone, and Kacie heard strains from a harmonica waft into the cave. She smiled, and leaned against the wall, noting that he had left his backpack next to where she was sitting. That made her happy.

Slowly she became aware of a feeling of discomfort, and finally realized it was her head that hurt. She crossed the cave over to Joe. She had taken special care to remember his name, since Izzy had said what he had about medical stuff.

"Joe?"

Joe looked up. "Kacie?"

"Do you have an aspirin or something in there? I have a headache."

He nodded. "With all the stuff that's happened to you these past few days, I'm not surprised. Hang on just a second."

She watched him as he absentmindedly rummaged through his bag. She noticed he was not really looking for anything, and so she lifted her eyes to see what preoccupied him so. Her eyes followed his gaze straight to Mimi, who was brushing her hair and talking to Sora. She watched Joe's mannerisms, and then she dared to ask it. "You like her, don't you?"

"Huh? Who?! _Mimi_? No! Yes! I--I give up."

"You _do_ , don't you?"

Joe lowered his gaze and actually started to look for the aspirin. "Yeah."

"So why don't you tell her? I can tell you from experience it's very irritating to a girl when a guy won't admit his feelings, or at least hint at them." _Very recent experience._

Joe blushed a little, and told her in a very quiet tone, "Well...you see...umm...well...there's Matt. I think he likes her, and I don't want to fight with him. I'd lose, and I don't like violence anyway--basically, Matt is not someone to mess with."

Kacie blinked back--were those tears? _No. I_ will not _cry over this. Now._ "Well, it would be her choice, would it not? If Mimi were to choose you over him, he couldn't _make_ her like him, right?"

Joe wouldn't look at her. "I...guess not...but Matt is so popular, no girl could possibly like me if she had the opportunity to have a guy like him..."

"You won't know until you ask. And unless she is very, _very, very,_ shallow, love is not a matter of being with someone popular."

Joe sighed. "Anyway, here's your aspirin."

Kacie nodded and took it from him, assuming it was her cue to leave him alone. She went back and sat by her stuff. She swallowed the small pill with no water, or anything. The last time she'd had something to drink that was not out of a creek had been on the way back to Izzy's house from school. She'd had half a Dr. Pepper left from six days before, and even though it was hot like wasabi and flatter than pancakes, she'd been desperate.

She settled back down into "Connecticut Yankee" with her flashlight to pass the time. As she was reading, Cabaiyomon woke up, and Kacie started reading it aloud. Even though Cabaiyomon had no idea what most of it meant, and interrupted every five seconds to ask a question, she thought the scene where Merlin first got beaten by Hank Morgan was pretty funny.

"Can we read the whole thing from the beginning, Kacie?" she asked.

"Sure. I've read it before, so I don't mind." She opened it to the front of the book and skipped over the publisher's foreword and contents and such, and began to read to her digimon.

Kacie noticed the exact moment the harmonica stopped, and she looked up from her reading, until Cabaiyomon asked her to keep going. Kacie did, and then a few minutes later Matt entered the cave and sat down beside her.

"Hello."

"Hi," Kacie said. She had no clue what to do. _What if Joe is right and Matt really does like Mimi? No, that can't be right. Joe_ has _to be mistaken. But what do I say?_

"Aren't you tired yet?" Matt asked before she had a chance to think of anything.

"I haven't had time to notice, I was reading to Cabaiyo here..."

"And you interrupted a really good part, too!" Cabaiyomon told him. "Go _on_ , Kacie!"

"All right, Cabaiyo, we'll finish up the chapter and then I'm going to sleep. If you want to hear any more you'll have to wait until tomorrow or read for yourself."

Matt laid down, facing her, and went to sleep.

Kacie finished chapter six, and at the end she took off her jacket and used it for a blanket again. For a few minutes she watched Cabaiyomon, who decided she didn't want to wait--and spent a good ten minutes trying to get the paperback to lie flat under her short paws--only to discover she couldn't read it anyway.

"Hey! This isn't DigiCode!"

"No, it's English, of course," Kacie told her. "Otherwise, _I_ couldn't read it."

"Oh. Good night, Kacie."

"Good night, Cabaiyo."

Kacie curled up tightly, trying to fit as much of herself as possible under her jacket, and Cabaiyomon crawled under the jacket and laid next to her stomach. Kacie absentmindedly ran her fingers through Cabaiyomon's mane until they both drifted off to dream.

* * *

The next morning, Kacie was not shocked by the small presence by her side when she awoke. She shook it awake, actually.

"Cabaiyo..."

"Five more minutes...no one _else_ is up..."

Kacie looked around, and realized that for the most part, Cabaiyomon was right. The only other person up was Mimi, who'd taken the final watch. "Hey, Mimi! Good morning!" Kacie said, quietly, vividly remembering how those stupid caves echoed the slightest sound.

"Good morning," Mimi returned, grinning in the morning light. Apparently she'd been awake long enough to get rid of the early-morning grouchies. "It's about time someone woke up."

"Now what?"

"Usually when one person who's not on watch wakes up, that makes it time to wake up everyone."

"Okay." Kacie picked up her jacket and in an instant it was on. She turned toward Matt and shook his shoulder.

"Mmm--? Kacie?" His eyes fluttered open, and again Kacie noticed them, how strangely captivating they were. "Aw, man, what time is it?"

"Time to be awake," she told him.

"Whatever." He sat up and immediately turned to the other side to wake T.K..

Kacie went across and shook Katina awake. Mimi had awoken Tai, who was working on Kari, who apparently slept a lot harder than one would think a child that age would. Then Katina woke Izzy. When Kari finally got up Tai shook Sora. Mimi went toward Joe and got him up, and Kacie watched, noting something about Mimi's expression as she did so. _Good gracious, she_ does _like Joe!_

Kacie watched from her spot as the kids got up each of their own digimon, trying to not think about what Mimi's liking Joe meant for her chances with Matt. _It's too nice a thought to think before noon, before one can fully comprehend it._ She smiled elatedly.

Cabaiyomon noticed her grin. "What are you thinking about, Kacie?"

Kacie looked to her side, seeing Matt doting over T.K. for some reason or another. _We're friends for life, right? She deserves to know..._ She decided to risk telling her digimon, even if Matt was close by. She didn't want him to hear, obviously. "Cabaiyo, do digimon fall in love? Do they have crushes on other digimon?"

Cabaiyomon looked up at her. "Yeah. There was this guy Cabaiyomon on File Island...how dreamy...he had such pretty green eyes..."

Kacie smiled, and wondered just exactly what Cabaiyo had left behind to be with her. _I'll have to ask her, later..._ "I have a crush on one of the guys here, Cabaiyo, and I'm waiting for him to notice."

Cabaiyomon giggled conspiratorially. "Who?"

Kacie felt a bit light-headed herself, having figured it out about Mimi. "Guess," she said, all smiles.

"Matt."

"Hey! How'd you know?"

Cabaiyomon smiled a bit. "Did you honestly think I was asleep the _whole_ time yesterday? I didn't hear everything, but I heard enough to know who you were talking with most of the time."

"You're just a little imp, aren't you?" Kacie asked.

"Pretty much."

Tai was about his usual ways, telling everyone to pack up so they could leave.

Kacie was, once again, done quickly, merely having to let Cabaiyomon crawl into her bag. The book didn't even have to go in, as Cabaiyomon insisted Kacie keep it in her jacket pocket until she was ready to read, since it would probably be very soon. Matt walked beside her again, however, and put Cabaiyomon's learning of things Arthurian on hold. The small digimon knew better than to interrupt, though.

"So here we go again," Matt said. "I keep pictures of this world in my mind, but they're all moving pictures, like on a video camera. I don't have any photograph memories of it."

Kacie laughed. "I know that feeling, and this is only my second time here. And my first time under Tai."

"Yeah, he can be a task-master. He's okay, though."

"I guess." Kacie's tone was begrudging, and not heartfelt in the slightest.

Cabaiyomon asked to be let down to talk with the rest of the digimon, and Kacie let her go.

It was fairly quiet, the kids pretty much keeping to their own conversations and not being noisy, until noon. They stopped by a creek, and the digimon found fruit growing about that they could all eat.

Kacie got a round, blue fruit that looked like a huge orange on the outside, if it weren't for color, but when she peeled it found the inside to look and taste like watermelon, only dyed blue. "What is this?" she asked of her digimon. "It's so good!"

"That's bluefruit," the purple critter told her.

"Real creative name," she remarked sarcastically. "I never would have thought of that!"

Matt sat next to her, holding his own fruit. It was a cluster of yellow berries. "Bellberries," he explained, "Or so Gabumon tells me. All I know is, from past experience, that they taste real good and make your teeth look like you smoke." He grinned ruefully.

Kacie smiled. "Gross! Tell you what, you give me half, and then we can both eat half of mine and get that off our teeth. Mine tastes like watermelon."

Matt agreed, and Kacie found the berries to be like cotton candy in the fact that they melted in her mouth, very quickly. "Oh, weird!" she told him.

"Yeah, I know. It's pretty cool, though, huh?"

"Yeah! The more I stick around, the more I like this place." She ruffled Cabaiyomon's mane. "Although that may be due in part to its residents."

"I'm not a resident anymore," Cabaiyomon said. "I'll be going with you from now on."

"It's still a cool place."

"Well, on that I have to agree with you. It's my homeworld, after all."

Tai began to yell at everyone. "Hey, people! Lunch is _over_!!! Let's get going!"

Matt stood and then turned and helped Kacie to her feet. It was a small and unromantic gesture by most standards, but Kacie's heart leapt. _He actually touched me! He put his hand over mine!_ She might have gone into shock had Cabaiyomon not leapt into her bag.

"Get a grip," the digimon said so low only Kacie could hear. "He was just being polite. No reason to faint."

"Oh, hush."

They walked--again. Kacie was almost ready to agree with Mimi on that note.

"So what do you do for fun at home?" Matt asked her. "You know, do you have a hobby or anything?"

"Well...I do have my scrapbooking, I guess that counts as a hobby."

"Scrapbooking?"

"Yeah. Basically the kindergarten art of cutting and pasting, only you get to use photos and little themed scraps of paper, and play around with them until it looks like a work of art."

"Huh?"

"I think I lost you. It's not exactly the most cool of pastimes, but it _does_ pass the time and I have something to show off when I'm done. I'll show you when we stop again."

"You have it with you?" Cabaiyomon asked.

"What do you think you're laying against as we speak? I never leave home without it."

"Oh."

* * *

The day passed quietly until they set up camp, no Venimon encounters, no e-mail from Gennai, no nothing.

 _Just me, falling for this guy deeper and deeper every second. Surely by now he's noticed that there's something more here, on my part, than just a friendship...unless Joe was right..._ No! _I will not allow myself to think such negative stuff!_

They were out in the middle of a forest this time, as there was no cave handy. They did not bother with a campfire because it would have taken too long to find a clearing, and it wasn't cold anyway. Matt took the spot next to Kacie for the third night in a row, and she was beginning to think it was more than coincidence. _Perhaps he really does--_

Matt turned to her. "Hey, are you going to show me that scrapbook or not?"

"Oh yeah! Cabaiyo, get out for a minute, please." Kacie pulled out a three-ring binder with the title "My Scrapbook" embossed on the cover. "This is it." She opened it to a page near the back and spread it across her lap. Matt sat down next to her, and she reveled in his very closeness.

The pages were papers in sheet protectors, and on the papers were collages of photos on pretty sheets of printed paper, with stickers, die-cut shapes, and little journaling scribbles in Kacie's handwriting to accentuate them. The photos were grouped by one theme, or date, to a set of pages. A set of pages were sometimes two pages opposite one another, sometimes just one, or sometimes three or more in a row.

"Hey, this is neat...definitely prettier than the way Mom keeps her pictures, in those little things from the film developers..."

"Those things drive me nuts. I like this better, and besides, they're more fun this way."

"And more fun to look at." He looked at the dates of several pages. "These are all pretty recent, within the past three months." He began to flip closer to the front of the book, and the dates went backwards. "How long have you been doing this?"

"Only a year or two, but I did all the old pictures that were scattered under my bed, rotting."

He smiled. "Those are your parents?" he asked of a picture labeled "Mom and Dad". The couple in the photo appeared to be high-class, him in a suit and her in the latest fashion.

"Yeah. This was their last anniversary."

He continued to flip pages backwards, not paying much attention to pictures of her few friends. Finally he came to a single page that had a five-by-seven picture of a redheaded girl a few years older than Kacie. It looked like a senior picture. The background paper was a solid sheet of aqua green, and there were a few stickers making a sort of border around three edges of the photo. Along the bottom, in letters obviously done with a stencil in a calligraphic font, the caption read: "Alaina Kensingten, in memorium. November 27, 1981 - June 9, 1998". That had only been that year.

Matt stared at the picture, and then looked up at Kacie. "Kensingten is your name, right?"

"Yeah."

"Was she...a cousin of yours or something?" he asked gingerly. He didn't want to hurt her.

"She was...my sister." Kacie willed herself not to cry, but the lip she was biting was certainly suffering for it. "I won't make you ask, I know it feels uncomfortable to ask. She went joyriding, with six other kids in this tiny car. She was always the perfect angel, she was the only one who wore her seat belt. When the stupid driver drove right off a bridge and into a lake, she was the only one who couldn't get out, and she drowned."

"Oh..."

"Don't say you're sorry. You didn't do a thing to her, and even if you'd been there and known there was nothing anyone could have done. She couldn't help the way she was raised."

"Raised?"

"If my parents hadn't raised her to be such a Mary Jane, she would have been like any other high school senior and gone without the belt for the thrill of it, and she could have got out. That's all I'm saying. And now since _she_ can't go on to law school and become the perfect female lawyer and marry the perfect male lawyer and have two boys and two girls and be a world peace spokeslady like she'd planned, my parents think it's _my_ cue to take over _her_ destiny. Frankly, all that stuff is good and well if you're into that kind of thing, but I'm not."

"Is that why you don't talk to them? Why you like it here so much?"

"Every time I do talk to them we argue, so yes, I avoid them. It's a big house."

"I see." He wasn't sure how good this was for her, but who was he to pass judgment? He didn't get along any better with his dad. Some of what his father put him through classified as abuse, although he said so to no one, not even T.K..

"My only parent now is Marta. I don't go places with my parents, and if I need their permission for anything, I tell Marta and she asks them for me. I stay in my rooms--don't look at me like that, I only have three and the bathroom doesn't count, so two--and I don't venture into the rest of the house unless I'm leaving it completely."

"What about your sister? I mean, did you get along with her?"

Kacie sighed wistfully. "She was perfect. I loved her in spite of that. As long as she was there to carry out their dreams and wishes to a tee, I was free to be me. Now, I'm...free to be her. We were really close all the time we were growing up. My jacket--" Kacie drew it tighter around her, as if she'd been suddenly chilled-- "Was hers. She got a new one, and she gave this one to me just the day before she was killed."

Suddenly Matt understood why she always wore it, even though it hadn't been cold in either the DigiWorld or Japan the entire time she'd been there. "I see..." He closed up the scrapbook and handed it back to her. He had some clue of how she felt, he remembered when he almost froze to death searching for T.K., and how it had felt for that one awful moment when he let himself think that something might have happened to him. He was sure that what Kacie felt must be ten times worse, because she _knew_ something had happened to her sister, and it was over. He knew she must still be hurting, although she hid it very well. In all truth, she tried not to think of it.

She took the binder from his hands, not bothering to have their fingertips brush as she could have. As soon as she had stuffed it back in her bag she laid down with her jacket-blanket and went to sleep.

Matt watched her for a few moments. She was so still, so quiet. Her hair trailed about, one strand, having come out of her ponytail (or possibly never having gone in), laid across her cheek. She smiled in her sleep, she must have been having a good dream. Matt was a little surprised to find himself hoping so, but didn't really have time to register any thoughts about it before T.K. tapped him on the shoulder.

"Help me with this, oniichan," he asked.

"Sure, T.K.."

The younger boy glanced at Kacie's sleeping form. "Hey, Matt?"

"Yeah?"

"The new girl is pretty, huh?"

Matt was taken aback, and in fact blushed a little. "T.K.! Come on, show me what you need help with now..."


	4. Chapter 4

Kacie woke up to Matt's shaking her shoulder. "Where's the fire?" she asked sleepily.

He snickered. "Come on, before you're the last one up."

"It can't be morning."

"Look around."

She sat up, almost bumping into him. "Sorry." _He's gonna think I did that on purpose...but then again, I might have if I'd known where he was sitting..._ She blushed a little, and quickly turned her face to look around like he'd asked. "Okay, maybe it _is_ morning..."

"I figured you'd see it my way."

Cabaiyomon awoke in the midst of the conversation. "Good morning Kacie, Matt..."

"Good morning." Kacie turned and took the critter into her arms.

T.K. came over and tapped Matt on the shoulder. "I don't know what he meant, but Tai said to...to get your head out of the clouds...and get packed for the day."

Matt blushed through his irritation, both at the remark and at having the perfect moment ruined. "Tell him--" he paused and pulled T.K. close so he could whisper in the small boy's ear.

T.K. cocked an eyebrow. "Is that really a nice thing to say, Matt?"

"It's as nice as what he said to me."

Kacie watched, amused, as the young boy ran off to relay the message, and smiled with delight as Tai's face turned beet red. _He sooooo deserved that...whatever it was..._ "What did you tell him?" Kacie asked between giggles.

"Eh...just hinted at the thing he and Sora have going. Of course it's so much more embarrassing coming from T.K., because he has no clue what he's saying..."

Kacie let out a laugh, and Tai shot a dirty look in her direction, although whether he meant it for her or Matt was unclear.

* * *

That day, Kacie read more of the book to Cabaiyomon as they walked. They got through about half the book.

The day went without event, and they set up camp a bit later than usual.

Kacie thought something was off, but said nothing. _I can't put my finger on it. It's too quiet, but it's plenty noisy, it's been too long since we fought. That's it! It's simply been too long. Not that I miss it, but I think that those baddies are busy planning something...but who do I tell? Tai won't listen to me, and I wouldn't tell him anyway, and Izzy...well, he'd listen, but would he believe me? What would he do about it? He'd ask why I don't tell Tai._

"Kacie, read to me?" her Digimon pleaded.

"Huh? Oh, sure, Cabaiyo..." Kacie reached into her bag and pulled out the book. "We were at chapter...what chapter, Cabaiyo?"

"We finished twenty-four."

"Okay...Twenty-six...twenty-five. Here we go. Chapter twenty-five, 'A Competitive Examination'..."

Cabaiyo listened to the story with rapt attention. Matt, in the spot next to Kacie again, merely listened to the voice. Although her voice did not have the charming tones and enchanting pitches of Katina's, it was obvious she put her heart into her reading, that she truly loved what she was doing.

It was quiet.

Katina sat in front of Izzy, having a typing/Japanese lesson.

Sora and Mimi chatted quietly, giggling occasionally.

T.K. and Kari had drifted off to sleep.

Kacie was reading to Cabaiyomon.

Tai was staring into the fire, apparently trying to figure out their next move.

Joe was arguing with Gomamon over something silly, and sorting through his medical bag.

Matt was playing his harmonica softly, lending a coziness, a homelike feeling to it all.

It was quiet.

Quiet.

Something that never lasted long.

Kacie finished the chapter, and set the book down.

"Oh, come on, Kacie, you're not tired yet, are you?" Cabaiyomon protested.

"No, Cabaiyo. I'm _very_ not tired. I'm on edge." _Something's up._

The digimon wrinkled her nose. "What does that mean?"

"Something's up. It's quiet. I've only known I'm DigiDestined for four days, and I can tell. Quiet around here simply means the calm before the storm."

Cabaiyomon cuddled up to Kacie's stomach. "Don't say that. Don't egg it on."

Kacie smiled. "I have no control over it."

"Do you know what's up?"

"I wish I did, but not as much as I wish it would just go away."

A sinister voice sounded from somewhere within the trees. "Not likely, DigiDestined!"

Kacie whirled to see another Venimon. "No! Not again!"

Everyone's sleepy state had been thrown aside. Even the two youngest were wide awake instantly.

"You can't beat us, Venimon!" Tai cried.

"In the name of King Ferodramon--"

"Violet Wave!" Cabaiyomon cut off the evil digimon by attacking.

He was attacked on all sides by all the rookies, but as he dissolved ten more poured out of the forest.

"Oh, peachy!" Kacie cried.

Everyone else digivolved, but Cabaiyomon simply kept attacking wherever she could between her higher-digivolved friends. She would jump high to attack in the Venimon's eyes, and while they were distracted, two of the larger digimon would team up and destroy them.

It was a comparatively easy battle, so short it was over before anyone had a chance to think. None of the digimon had to de-digivolve, but it made it much easier to get around, so they did.

"That was..." Tai began, but he didn't dare call it easy. It had been, but he didn't want to jinx it. With their luck, if he had said it, a hundred of the stupid things would've appeared.

"I know," Izzy agreed. "But I think our best bet is to keep moving."

"Wait!" Kacie said. "Have we been taking a more or less straight course? Not changing direction much?"

"Give me a nano," Izzy said. "I'll access a map with our route--yes, Kacie-san, we've been going steadily west. Why?"

"Well, these stupid things are always appearing from the right of our path--perhaps we should head to the right--north--and see where they're coming from?"

Tai sweatdropped. Kacie was sure he did not want to admit that she had a point. After a moment, when the drop disappeared, he spoke. "Fine. It's as good as any other direction when we don't know where we are anyway."

_Guys never want to admit it when they're wrong, or even when a girl is simply more right than they are!_

They walked for about an hour in the direction Kacie had suggested before re-setting up camp--or rather, most of them walked. Tai carried Kari on his shoulders, and Matt followed suit with T.K..

Kacie smiled as Matt came to talk to her, both for the fact that he _was_ coming, and for the fact that T.K. had fallen asleep up there and it made a cute picture.

"He must be very tired..." Kacie said softly.

Matt looked up, over his head. "Yeah. I think so. He was sleeping already, and then he had to loan Patamon the energy to become MagnaAngemon...usually it doesn't affect us kids, but we've been walking a long time, and he's so much smaller..."

Kacie nodded, and brushed her hand over a sleeping Cabaiyomon's mane in her bag. "I don't think we're through yet. Something bad is coming down ahead of us."

"Eh?" Matt frowned.

"No, not tonight. We'll be okay tonight, I'm pretty sure, but--well, let's just say that getting as much sleep as you can tonight would probably be a good idea."

Matt frowned again. _Can she honestly know that stuff for a fact?_

Finally Tai stopped them. "It's late, guys, like, two in the morning. There's only enough time for five watches. Who volunteers?"

Kacie, Matt, Joe, Izzy, Sora, and Tai himself all raised their hands.

Tai frowned. "Joe, you first, then Sora, Matt, me and Izzy. Kacie can go to sleep."

Kacie objected. "No. I didn't have to help my digimon digivolve. I'm not as tired, and I need to start doing this. I'll take someone's place."

Tai sighed. "No--"

Sora stopped him. "Let her. She has a digimon, and all watching involves is yelling and waking the rest of us up if anything happens."

"Fine," Tai pouted. "She can have your place. Sora, go get some sleep."

"Tai--"

"Sora."

Sora frowned, but went and laid in her spot, with Mimi, Katina and the two little ones, who were already asleep. Joe found a good lookout spot atop a rock and sat there with Gomamon across his lap, back to the rest of them. Tai, Izzy, Matt and Kacie went and laid down as well, and sooner than any of them expected, sleep came.

* * *

Kacie was sure she only got five minutes of sleep before Joe shook her shoulder, but she felt refreshed nonetheless.

Kacie took her bag over to the rock where Joe had been as he went to go to sleep, and after she sat she woke Cabaiyomon.

"Huh--? It's dark out..."

"It's our watch. You have to be awake too, because I don't want to be alone. If you want, I'll read. If anything happens, I'll hear it before I see it. And besides, nothing will happen tonight."

"Then get your flashlight and read, please."

They read several chapters in the hour, and all was quiet, just as she had expected. She stuck the book back in her duffel, and Cabaiyomon crawled in after it.

After a minute, she walked over to Matt. She hesitated to wake him up--he was so adorable when he was asleep. So handsome. So...

"You have to wake him, Kacie, no matter how nice it is to watch him sleep."

"Oh, hush, Cabaiyo." Kacie walked over to him and knelt next to him. She reached out and gently shook his shoulder. "Matt..."

"Hmm? Kacie?" He opened his eyes and smiled up at her. "My turn?"

"Yeah." She smiled and went to lay down as he got up and headed for the rock.

 _That's twice he said my name_ before _he opened his eyes. I wish I knew what he was thinking--or at least what he thinks of me..._

Matt looked over his shoulder at Kacie as she laid there so silently.

Gabumon looked up at him. "What is it about her, Matt?"

"I wish I knew."

"Do you--?"

"I think so." It was funny how Matt always knew what his digimon was going to say--and when he didn't want him to say it aloud.

* * *

The next morning Kacie awoke to a cheerful "Good morning!" from Cabaiyomon.

"Good morning...who else is up?" Kacie asked, not opening her eyes.

"Mostly everyone except Matt, Gabumon and Kari..."

Kacie sat up and turned to wake Matt. It pleased her that she got to be the one to do it. She shook his shoulder, "Matt..."

He was awake almost instantly, and the thought ran through Kacie's head that perhaps he had been awake and pretended to be asleep, for whatever reason. She knew she did it sometimes so she could think to herself.

"Good morning, Kacie."

"Morning. Today is going to be a long day."

"I hope not--"

"Who was the clown that tied my shoes together?!!?" Tai yelled.

Kacie grinned wickedly.

Matt turned to look at her.

"You didn't honestly think I came and got you straight after my watch, did you?" she asked him with a cool tone.

He wasn't sure whether to smile back at her or give her away. So he smiled. It wasn't like she'd hurt anything--except Tai's pride, and that was so big it could definitely take the abuse.

Sora helped Tai with his shoes--he was too distracted to do it himself--and then they went about the day's walk.

Cabaiyomon was all ears as far as "Connecticut Yankee" was concerned. Kacie read most of the morning.

Matt wanted to talk with Kacie, they usually had interesting conversations if nothing else, and he was enjoying getting to know her, but Cabaiyomon insisted on hearing one more chapter. "Kacie, please? Then I'll go to sleep and leave you two alone to talk. Please? Matt? Kacie?"

Matt laughed. "That must be a good book."

"It is," Cabaiyomon assured him. " _Please_ , Kacie?"

"Well, okay. One more if you promise to rest up when I'm finished."

"I promise!"

"Okay. I bookmarked it this time. Chapter forty-one, 'The Interdict'. 'However, my attention was suddenly snatched from such matters; our child began to lose ground again, and we had to go to sitting up with her, her case became so serious. We couldn't bear to allow anyone to help in this service, so we two stood watch and watch, day in and day out. Ah, Sandy, what a right heart she had, how simple, and genuine, and good she was! She was a flawless wife and mother; and yet I had married her for no particular reason, except that by the customs of chivalry she was my property until some knight should win her from me in the field. She had hunted Britain over for me; had straightway resumed her old place at my side in the placidest way and as of right. I was a New Englander, and in my opinion this sort of partnership would compromise her, sooner or later. She couldn't see how, but I cut argument short and we had a wedding.

"'Now I didn't know I was drawing a prize, yet that was what I did draw. Within the twelvemonth I became her worshiper; and ours was the dearest and perfectest comradeship that ever was. People talk about beautiful friendships between two persons of the same sex. What is the best of that sort, as compared with the friendship of man and wife, where the best impulses and highest ideals of both are the same? There is no place for comparison between the two friendships; one is earthly, the other divine...'"

"That's sweet," Cabaiyomon interrupted. "I didn't think that the Hank guy had it in him. Go on."

Kacie finished the chapter, blushingly. Of course it would be to that chapter the one time Matt could hear every word! _I hope he doesn't think I rigged that. I didn't! I mean, it was a nice sentiment, but--I wonder, if he was to think I rigged it, would he take the hint? Maybe it wasn't so bad..._ She put the book away and Cabaiyomon kept her promise.

Matt watched Cabaiyomon saw logs. "Why did you want her to sleep?"

 _Partly because I like being alone with you, and partly..._ "Because I think today there will be a battle, and she needs her strength. If she sleeps, she'll be stronger."

"I see. And why do you think there's gonna be a battle?"

"Can't you feel it? The closer we get to those stupid Venimon, the worse it feels."

"Feel what?"

"I don't know what to call it. Something about the heaviness of the air."

"No, I don't feel it."

"That's weird."

Matt looked around. He could tell nothing different. "Perhaps it's because the first digimon you faced was a Venimon...or because you faced it alone...you have some sort of instinct for them."

"Maybe." Kacie shook her head, not really wanting to know why she knew.

Matt could tell she wanted the subject changed. "Hey, that chapter you read...that was good."

"What part?"

"All of it. Who wrote it?"

"Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known by his penname, Mark Twain."

"Isn't he dead?"

"Uh, yeah, last I checked..."

"That's pretty good for having been written so long ago."

"All the classics are good. If they weren't good, why would they still have fans to this very day?"

"Good point...what others have you read?"

"Umm...I'll read any of the classics...I like Mark Twain, and Emily Brontë's 'Wuthering Heights', and H.G. Wells, I love H.G. Wells...Sherlock Holmes stories..."

Matt cocked his head. "How did you get started reading such old stuff?"

Kacie sighed, and rolled her eyes, trying to think. "Umm...I read 'Black Beauty' when I was eight, I've always had a thing for horses..."

"Then Cabaiyomon seems to be perfect for you."

Kacie smiled. "She'd be perfect even if I didn't like horses. At any rate, 'Black Beauty' was really easy to read, super-short chapters. I think the longest ones were six pages. Never more than that. Than when I was nine I saw a movie called 'The Secret Garden'. I found out it was a book first, and so I borrowed the book from the friend who had told me, and it was by the same publisher who had made 'Black Beauty', and from then on I had pretty much figured out that the classics were the world's finest literature."

"I see...if they're all like what you read just now, I can understand."

"They are, for the most part. Of course every author has a different style, but the quality level is the same. The only thing I have yet to get is Shakespeare."

"Really?"

"Yeah...I won't get edited or abridged copies of anything if I can help it, and so far every time I run across a Shakespearean play it's one or both of those. I'd really like to have one, especially 'Romeo and Juliet', but I just can't find them."

"Well, that's gotta suck," Matt sympathized, making a mental note to himself.

"It does." Kacie rolled her eyes. "I hate publishers who desecrate the great literary works of the world by cutting out parts or re-writing them in more modern English for my convenience. Modern typesets I can understand, but that's about all I'll tolerate. I like Old English. It presents a challenge to read, or at least it did at first. By the end of my first book of Arthurian legend I pretty much had it down."

"Old English?"

"Thou knowest, in this manner, good knight. It very well rolls off the tongue."

Matt laughed. "Okay, okay, I get the idea!"

"Hast thou begun to understand?" she continued tauntingly.

He protested between laughs. "Knock it off!"

"Art thou sure thou wantest me to quit this manner of speaking?"

"I art sure!"

"Actually, Matt, it would be I am...art means are, you don't go around saying 'I are'..."

By this time he was barely able to talk between the laughs. He had no clue why he thought it was so funny. Perhaps it was closer to quaint than funny, but either way it made him laugh.

"Hey everyone! Check it out!" Tai cried, with that bad-news tone in his voice.

"We're heeeee-rrrrre," Kacie said indifferently.

"Huh?" Matt didn't have time to ask her what she meant before T.K. came and grabbed his hand, dragging him up to Tai's viewpoint.

"Matt, Matt, we found it!"

Kacie walked slowly and serenely to the others, they had reached another cliff, and as she looked over the edge she saw it.

"Ever notice that these baddies get all the nice places with all the high-tech stuff and we end up sleeping on the ground in caves?" Joe asked.

Kari was taking in the sight with fascination. "Oh..." Her crest began to glow, and the light enveloped her. "Tai? Tai..."

"What is it, Kari?" he asked anxiously.

"Tai, remember those Venimon that attacked in the name of King Ferodramon?"

"Of course I remember the Veni--what are you telling me, Kari?" The boy put his hands on his little sister's shoulders and knelt down in front of her. "You know something. Your Crest...it's telling you something..."

"Yes, Tai...that's his castle," she answered weakly.

"Ferodramon?"

Kari nodded. "If we beat him..." she faltered, and closed her eyes. She fell into Tai's arms.

"Kari!" T.K. cried.

"I'm fine, T.K....If we beat Ferodramon...uhh...then the Venimon will go away..."

"All of them?" Tai stood and held her against himself.

"Yes..."

Kacie had known that. She didn't know it as distinctly as Kari seemed to, Kari had a gift, but Kacie had felt it in her bones, in her deepest soul.

"Let me down, Tai, I'm fine." Kari's Crest had returned to normal, and the light had left her.

He did so and she stood on her feet as if nothing had ever happened.

"Kari?" T.K. asked, holding a hand out towards her.

 _How cute!_ Kacie thought.

"I'm fine, T.K.. I told you that. It's just sometimes my Crest takes a lot of energy."

"You have a special crest," T.K. said in awe.

"I know," she answered with no importance. Not indifference, but something like she might have said if Tai had reminded her which cupboard something was in.

"Well, we'd better get going, everyone," Tai said.

"Let's go," Matt said.

"I'm in," Izzy agreed.

"Let's get this overwith!" Kacie cried. It was a bit different than the usual, but it was exactly how she felt. She felt that soon would come the time Gennai had told them of, and she wanted to get it out of the way.

_I have to be the heroine...it figures._

They approached the castle and hid in some bushes.

Izzy used his laptop to gain what information he could. "Fascinating! The entire place is a labyrinth, at the center of which is a huge training center where Ferodramon teaches methods of battle to the Venimon which he has created!"

"Created?!" Tai asked.

"Yes, apparently he can call them into being and have as many as he wants."

"Peachy!" Kacie said. "But now it makes sense, if we defeat him, he cannot make any more Venimon. We'll still have to defeat the ones that exist."

"Not necessarily. It's the very existence of his energy that keeps them alive. They do not require nourishment, but if their energy source--Ferodramon--suddenly ceases to exist, they do too."

"If that's true," Kacie said, "The more of them he makes, the weaker he would become."

"Yes, most likely," Izzy agreed, "But he could probably have a hundred before he would notice any change, so he probably has tens of thousands of them. Otherwise it would not be practical. It would be simpler to do his own fighting."

"Since when are evil digimon known for being practical, Izzy?" Sora asked.

"Still, I think if we can get him to create more and more of these Venimon, we could weaken him enough to defeat him," Kacie said.

Tai turned to his sister. "Kari? Are you hearing anything about it?"

"If I knew, Tai, that would be the easy way out. We have to make decisions sometimes. I can only get information to help you make the right choices, not blank out your mind."

"It doesn't get much more cryptic than that, Tai," Matt said. "Forget that approach."

"Well, let's go on in," Izzy said. "I downloaded the map of the labyrinth and calculated the fastest route to the center."

Tai nodded, and everyone began following Izzy silently. No one dared to speak. There was no telling where there were Venimon lurking.

After a few minutes Izzy halted everyone. "Through that door," he said. "Ferodramon."

Kacie stepped forward and looked in first. She held her mouth clamped shut so she would not scream no matter how repulsive the sight.

There were Venimon all over the place, but that was not the main thing to catch her attention. "Ferodramon..." she whispered.

He was not ugly, like the Venimon, but he was not at all pretty. His skin was patchy, like camouflage, only in shades of orange. His globular form, back to Kacie, must have been twenty feet tall.

"It's him," Kacie said, turning to face her fellow DigiDestined. "Obliteration time."

Tai nodded, and the group walked in.

The voice--it was low, so low it was hard to understand it--came from the other side. "I was expecting you."

"Well, then, I'm glad to say we didn't disappoint you!" Tai cried.

Ferodramon turned around, and Kacie then became repulsed. His face was twisted, crooked, scarred. His yellow eyes barely showed among folds of skin.

"You big old windbag! We've got you all figured out! We'll show you!" Kacie yelled at the top of her lungs.

"Digivolve!" Tai ordered.

"Agumon Warp Digivolve to...WarGreymon!"

"Gabumon Warp Digivolve to...MetalGarurumon!"

"Patamon digivolve to...Angemon! Angemon digivolve to...MagnaAngemon!"

"Gatomon digivolve to...Angewomon!"

"Tentomon digivolve to...Kabuterimon! Kabuterimon digivolve to...MegaKabuterimon!"

"Biyomon digivolve to...Birdramon! Birdramon digivolve to...Garudamon!"

"Palmon digivolve to...Togemon! Togemon digivolve to...Lillymon!"

"Gomamon digivolve to...Ikkakumon! Ikkakumon digivolve to...Zudomon!"

"Havamon digivolve to...Wizardmon!"

Cabaiyomon looked up at Kacie. "I can do that, too, once more without your Crest..."

"Go for it!"

"Cabaiyomon digivolve to...Librimon!"

Before Kacie stood a majestic, purple, horse-like digimon. Pale pink mane fell in long locks past her neck, and her tail was braided in many tiny braids. Her hooves glinted, and Kacie noticed they were silver.

"Watch me now, Kacie!" she cried. The voice was deeper, but still echoed of the small purple creature Kacie had come to adore. Among the other digimon's attacks Librimon shot off her own.

"Cantering Wave!" Hoofprints of shining white light shot through the air towards Ferodramon.

For the first time, he let out a cry of pain at her attack. "Gaaah! I will not allow you children to defeat me! Fiery Shock!"

Garudamon took the brunt of the attack. "Sora! He got me..." She de-digivolved to Birdramon again.

"No!" Sora screamed. "This can't be happening!"

Suddenly floods of Venimon poured in from the various entrances to the room and the DigiDestined found themselves swamped. No one had time to attack Ferodramon, and although Venimon were vanishing right and left, there were always more to take their places.

Ferodramon smiled. "You will be exhausted soon! You will be able to do nothing! All I have to do is sit back and enjoy the show!"

Feelings of hatred for the digimon rose in Kacie's throat, in her mind, in her very soul. She tried to push them back but she had to think very hard just to survive, and her emotions had free rein inside her.

Librimon came close next to her. "Get on my back! I'll know where you are and you'll be easier to protect!"

Kacie clambered on her digimon's back and tried to hold on with her legs in the absence of a saddle. She remembered that once she had been told that horses had no feeling in their manes, and no matter how hard you jerked and tugged and yanked at them, they would never feel a thing. You could hang 3-ton weights from their manes and they'd never notice. This was great as a last resort for a rider when their horse took off. Kacie knew she had to hang on to _something_ with her hands or she'd lose her balance, especially since Librimon had to raise herself up on her hind legs to do her attack, so she took two fistfuls of mane and prayed that the same held true for digital horses.

"It doesn't hurt, but even if it did I would understand!" Librimon told her. "Cantering Wave!" She reared and Kacie held on for dear life. Her eyes were scrunched shut as she felt herself raise up in the air at a bizarre angle and then fall toward the ground with a _whumph_!

"Hey! I'm still on!" she cried in shock.

"Of course! If you fell, I would catch you!"

The ten digimon fought the Ferodramon for twenty minutes before there were any more de-digivolutions, but at that point a lot of them fell fast.

"Agumon!"

"Patamon!"

Kacie turned, while upon Librimon's back, to see Tai and T.K. run to their digimon.

"Biyomon!"

"Palmon!"

"Tentomon!"

Kacie turned away and tried to concentrate. She had not figured that they would be so numerous! The more they took down, the more he made, but he kept them at an equal rate so that his energy level did not drop any lower.

"Cajamon!"

"Gomamon!"

_Oh no, it's just me and Kari!_

"Fiery Transport!"

Eight of the kids screamed. Kacie whirled to see them, along with their digimon, disappear. " _No!!!_ " she and Kari cried in unison.

And suddenly, all the Venimon dissipated.

Librimon fell to her front feet, and turned around to face Kari and Angewomon.

Ferodramon smiled. "You two will be fun to torture...the weakling child and the girl with no Crest!"

"Hey, where did you get your face? Trick'n'treats or us?" Kacie yelled. "You just _try_ to do anything to me, or Kari, and it'll get turned inside out! Maybe then it would actually be possible for it to be uglier than it is now! What did you do with our friends?"

"They're all separated from their digimon in safe places. The digimon are in irons, and your friends are in the Death Row of my dungeon!"

A massive monitor on one wall lit up, and became staticky, and then faded in to show a panoramic shot of the DigiDestined, all unconscious, strapped to the wall by wrist and ankle. And no floor in sight--at least not in the shot.

"Tai!" Kari cried. "And T.K.!"

 _Matt! Izzy!_ Kacie bit her tongue. _I have to put on a brave face for Kari._

"Now for you, small one...Fiery Transport!"

Angewomon stepped in front of Kari to take the blow, to be transported to the torture chambers Kari was sure to be headed for, but the flaming beam passed right through her and on to Kari. Angewomon's pain at hearing Kari scream and watching her disappear was beyond evident.

Kacie had never thought she'd see an angel get ticked off.

"You stupid evil villain! Whatever you do to Kari you will feel ten times the pain, I swear it!"

"Oh, you little digimon scare me so much! I'm frightened!"

"You should be!" Librimon cried.

_It's...just...me, and Librimon...Angewomon may soon go down, and I can't help her re-digivolve, she needs Kari for that..._

"Cantering Wave!"

_Oh peachy! Guess what time it is, kids, it's save-the-day-and-be-the heroine-time!_

"Fiery Shock!"

Kacie cringed, and Librimon reared, but Angewomon screamed.

"Angewomon!" both Kacie and her digimon cried.

" _Aaahh_! Save Kari for me!"

Kacie was not sure if the digimon was dying, or going to de-digivolve, or what.

"Fiery Transport!"

"I'll do my best, Angewomon!" Kacie promised before the angelic being disappeared in the light. Then she turned to Ferodramon. "You cannot defeat us! We have all the good power on _our_ side! You have nothing but darkness! Light always chases away darkness! Take a light into a dark room and the darkness can do nothing but disappear! I _refuse_ to let you win that easily! I'm going to win even if defeating you becomes my dying action!"

Kacie's digivice sent a beam of light towards the fiend, as if to prove her point. Then it began to glow. Kacie swung her leg over Librimon's back and let herself slide to the ground.

"I...will...not...let...my...friends... _down_! I've come too far to quit now. You're as good as gone, Ferodramon!" Her digivice continued glowing, and then for a second the entire room was filled with blinding light.

"Kacie!" Librimon shouted, "It's..."

"I know what it is!" she shouted back. When the light vanished, there was a pendant strung around Kacie's neck, and she was holding the "charm" of it between her fingers so it dangled down. "My Crest." In the window of the brassy Tag, the Crest shone. The design was carved dark purple on light, in the shape of a heart inside a five-pointed star. "The Crest of Determination!"

Librimon reared.

Kacie's digivice shot a beam of light through the new Crest, and it shot towards the digimon.

"Librimon...digivolve to...Cielomon!"

The digimon didn't change much, other than going from the size of a Morgan to that of a Clydesdale, and sprouting a pair of multi-colored wings.

"Whoa..." Kacie gaped in awe. _Is that_ my _digimon?_

Cielomon bent down and looked at her. "It's me," she assured the girl.

Kacie looked into her eyes. They were the same eyes that Jacamon, Cabaiyomon, and Librimon all shared. "Yes. So give him all you got and let's get this overwith!"

"Violet Lightning!"

Ferodramon screamed.

 _He actually felt pain! Perhaps he himself is not as strong as we thought! But, can I do this alone?_ No! _I can't even_ think _like that! I have to try, for all my friends!_

"Do you think you can defeat me, human?"

"Haven't I made that pretty obvious?!!? Of course I do!!"

"Violet Lightning!"

"Fiery Shock!"

They both dodged, and neither attack hit its original mark, but they did some pretty nice damage to the walls of the place.

_Guess I just have to keep trying..._


	5. Chapter 5

"Ehh..." Matt shook his head and returned to consciousness. The sensation of hanging from a wall hit him, and he found it to be unpleasant at best. His ankles and wrists were in irons, that was why it felt that way.

The only light was through a small slit of a window in the rock above, so he couldn't see much. "Is anyone here?" he called out.

"We're all here, Matt," came Tai's voice. "You're the last one to wake up."

"At least we know no one is comatose," Joe said. "That's good, because there's nothing I can do for that."

Matt looked around. Even in the darkness, he could make out the faces of most of the DigiDestined. "I thought you said we were _all_ here, Tai. I don't see Kacie, or any of our digimon."

Izzy cut in. "I think that we have been separated from our digimon, to prevent them from digivolving. Kari said that Ferodramon told her and Kacie that they were in irons."

"And we're not?"

Kari hung her head. She started crying. "He...he said...he said we're on...on...Death Row..."

Tai jerked his head up, purposely banging his head on the wall behind him. "It doesn't get any better than this."

Matt looked down, for no particular reason. "Uh, Tai..."

" _What_?"

"It just got better...look down..."

Tai looked down.

The floor of the room was a good hundred feet below them.

Kari, T.K., Mimi, and Joe screamed.

"I guess we can rule out trying to file off the irons?" Tai cracked.

T.K. then began to cry as well, although a bit louder than Kari had. "Matt, Matt, we're gonna be okay, right?"

Matt bit his lip. He did not want to lie, but if this truly was the end, he had to give his little brother some hope. "Sure, T.K.. Hey--I know where the digimon are, but you never did say what Kacie was doing..."

"Fighting Ferodramon, unless he got her, too..." Kari whimpered.

"She'd be here if he did," Sora pointed out.

"Unless he 'got her' in a very different way," Tai said.

Matt had had just about all he could take. "How can you talk like that, Tai? I know you don't like her, but she's as much a part of the team as you are! At the very least you could show some mutual respect!"

"Fine. I'm just saying, we should hope for the best but be prepared for the worst."

"If she's out there all alone, she's got to be getting drained...we need to help her," Matt said.

"Oh, and how do we do that?" Tai asked. The sarcasm in his voice was so sharp it could have cut granite like half-melted butter.

"We have to concentrate...on...on helping her...we have to let her tap into our strength, like we let the digimon when they digivolve."

"And how do we do _that_?" Tai cried. He was getting fed up with it.

Joe turned toward Sora. "Hey, do you remember what we did with the Bakemon?"

Sora rolled her eyes. " _Baka_ -mon, yes...we did that mind-over-matter chant...worked like a charm."

"Do you think the same thing could work here? Ferodramon-lose-your-power..."

Everyone turned their heads and gave Joe a strange look.

Matt spoke up. "You know, I think that Ferodramon is stronger than Bakemon are...it may not work so well...we would be better off focusing to make Kacie--or Librimon--or maybe even Librimon has digivolved--at any rate, our side, stronger."

Everyone was silent for a minute, except Izzy, who muttered things like "Carry the 4, divide by seven...formula...add thirty..." Finally he piped up. "It took me a minute longer to do the calculations in my head, but I think Matt is right. Everyone concentrate."

"On what?" T.K. asked.

Matt wasn't sure himself. "Uh...think how badly we need to defeat this guy, and then think how Kacie is our only hope..."

T.K. cocked an eyebrow skeptically. "Well...okay..." He closed his eyes.

Everyone else followed suit.

"We have to help her," Matt said.

"We have no other line of defense right now," Joe agreed, trying to be encouraging in his own disconsolate way.

"Cheer up!" cried Sora. "Of course we--uh, she--can beat this guy!"

Matt's crest began to faintly glow, but no one noticed.

"Yeah!" Kari cried. "Before I got here, I heard her promise Angewomon she would."

"We can't let a little thing like getting locked up a hundred feet above a stone floor get in our way..." Izzy said.

"That's little?" Tai asked.

"Compared to wiping a virus off a motherboard without damaging it..."

Tai wasn't in the mood for computer talk. "Nevermind."

"Hey, if she made a promise, she has to do it!" T.K. cried. "A promise is a promise!"

Mimi giggled. "Yeah...she better do it, I have a big party planned for next week when we get home..."

"You do?" Sora asked. "Why didn't you tell me? Aren't I invited?"

"I just planned it, Sora...of course you're invited! You're all invited! It's going to be a victory party for us!"

"That's the idea!" Matt cheered his friends on. "Keep it up, guys!"

Katina bit her lip. "Kacie...she needs us. We are depending on her, but she is depending on us as well! We're a team! We've got to do this!"

Joe wrinkled his nose, trying to push up his glasses without a free hand. The result was they went farther down the bridge of his nose. "She has to do it, before my glasses drive me nuts! Come on, Kacie!"

Mimi laughed. It seemed out of character for Joe, and yet so like something he would say.

Matt's Crest had grown brighter with each one's expression of support.

Matt closed his eyes. "I have a lot of hopes and dreams...and things I need to do when we get home..."

"Like clean out your closet?" T.K. suggested.

Matt snickered, but continued. "She has to do it...she knows she's part of the team, and she knows she has an obligation to try. And we all want her to try! She's just _gotta_ win!"

His Crest was suddenly _very_ bright, and everyone noticed.

Matt looked down, and noticed it had fallen out of his shirt while they had been transported. "It's glowing...but with no results..."

Sora and Kari turned to Tai.

Kari frowned, becoming very stern. "Taichi...you have to help too."

"Yeah," Sora agreed. "If you don't want to think of helping her, think of the cause _behind_ helping her..."

Tai winced. "Fine." He writhed against his bonds as he shouted at the top of his lungs, "She better win and get us out of this place, because if we both end up in the hereafter, I'm gonna kick her heavenly--"

"Tai! There are kids here!" Sora reminded him.

"Butt!"

"Well, it's better than nothing!" Matt yelled.

His Crest glowed its brightest, and filled the room with the ever-appearing blinding light. He noticed that this time it was not plain white, but blue, the color of his Crest.

"Friendship! I think that for the first time since Kacie has arrived, there's a real spirit of Friendship here!"

Then, suddenly, the light was gone, and their eyes readjusted to the semidarkness that the tiny window afforded.

* * *

Kacie was sitting on Cielomon's back, clinging to the strands of mane at the bottom of her digimon's neck for dear life. With Cielomon's wings had come the ability to fly, and fly she did to avoid getting blasted.

Kacie was amazed at just how _huge_ she was. There was room on her back for all ten of the DigiDestined--although it would probably be a tight squeeze with the digimon. The strands in her mane--it was a long mane, even for her size--were as long as Kacie's arm from her shoulder. Kacie had seen the feathers on her wings, and she didn't even want to think how big of a quill pen that they would make.

Cielomon concentrated on blasting the bottom half of Ferodramon--apparently he was anchored in place and that part could not dodge. "Violet Lightning!"

Again the attack hit, and it caused him pain, but he always had time to recover before Cielomon had gathered enough energy to fire again.

"If only my attack was just a little bit stronger, Kacie!"

"Don't look at me! It's taking all my concentration just to stay on!"

"Sorry!"

"Fiery Shock!"

Cielomon dodged yet again.

And then, out of the blue, the room was filled with blue light.

Ferodramon screamed, but to Kacie, it was comforting. The light actually seemed to embrace her. She thought she heard Matt's voice say, "We believe in you," but she told herself she was imagining things.

Suddenly everything went in slow motion.

Ferodramon whirled to face Cielomon, who had moved yet again.

"Vi-o-let Light-ning!"

The light was gone. Ferodramon screamed one last time, and in a shower of sparks--or perhaps they were fireworks--he vanished.

Kacie breathed for the first time since the light had appeared. " _We did it!_ " she screamed, wanting to throw her arms up in the air, but at the same time, not wanting to fall off.

"Was there any doubt?" Cielomon laughed.

And then the walls started to crumble.

"Nooo!" Kacie screamed. "I don't wanna be a martyr!"

And then, before anything else had so much as a chance to happen, everything went black.

* * *

Kacie had no idea where she was when she woke up. She sat up. She was glad to find no debris on top of her, and every part of her seemed to be working.

"Kacie-san! You're up!" It was Izzy.

"Izzy? What--? Where--? But-- _huh_?" She shook her head, trying to clear the mental fuzz.

"Half of us woke up outside the ruins of Ferodramon's castle. Kat, Kari, T.K., Matt and you were all out. So the rest of us each carried one of you to this cave, and we built the fire over there--you're the next to last to wake up..."

Kacie looked about. There was a fire near the front of the cave, and her duffel was next to her. "How is everyone? In general? And where are the digimon? Cabaiyo?"

"The digis are all by the fire, asleep. Cabaiyomon too. There were no serious injuries, except one...Joe did what he could..."

"Who?" Kacie's eyes filled with fear. _It can't be Cat, or he'd be with her, and obviously it's not me..._

Izzy took a deep breath. He thought he had some idea of how she felt about Matt, and wanted to break it to her gently, but there was no way to do it but bluntly. "Well, Kacie...it's Matt..."

Shock and horror were written all over her expression. "No! What happened?"

"No one really knows what, or why it was only him. He was at the end of the line of us while we were in irons, and my guess would be that he simply didn't fall clear of the castle debris like the rest of us did..."

"Where is he? I have to see him."

Izzy raised an eyebrow. Now he truly understood. She had not been trying to make a friend, she had been trying to catch Matt's attention, and now she was truly worried for his well-being. "He's on the other side of the fire...Joe and Kat are taking turns watching him...T.K. is probably there as well..."

But Kacie was already heading toward the source of light. Izzy got up and took his laptop outside with the others. Only Matt, Kacie, Joe, and the adorable sleeping digis were left inside.

She stopped, seeing Matt lying there.

Joe was sitting next to him, and Kacie was not sure if he looked bored or worried.

"Joe...?"

"Oh. You're up. There wasn't anything wrong with you, you were just conked out, so Izzy was watching you..."

"I know there's nothing wrong with me. You don't have to explain. What I want to know is how is _he_?" She pointed to Matt.

Joe let his eyes travel over the blond boy's resting form before speaking. "Kacie, come here. Around to this side."

Kacie frowned, but did so.

She watched Joe's finger point out gashes and cuts and bruises all along Matt's right side. There was one from his shoulder down to his elbow, and all over the palm of his hand. "I think what happened is he fell and landed on his hand, and then that gave out, of course, and his whole body slammed down on that side."

Kacie choked back tears. "Where--where _did_ he land?"

"On the debris...fortunately we were pretty high up and nothing landed on top of him. His injuries are not too serious, but if he doesn't wake up soon we might have cause to worry."

"Why didn't the rest of you fall there, too? And me?"

"He was the one closest to the center of the castle. T.K. was closest to him and _he_ landed only a few feet away from the wall. You must have been carried some distance by your digimon before the thing totally collapsed."

Kacie bit her lip. "I don't know much about medical stuff, but if you could explain what he needs, I'll help you and Cat..."

Joe frowned, then thought of the extra sleep her offer would get him. The things Matt needed _were_ few and pretty simple. He showed her the ropes quickly and left her alone with him, joining the others outside.

Kacie heard T.K. pelt Joe with questions. _I'll have to be ready to answer the same questions when Cat takes over--_ And with that thought, Kacie realized she did not want to leave his side, not now, not ever. She sat quietly, knees to her chest, head on her knees, and wept.

* * *

Kacie sat in the closest spot possible when Katina took over. She, Joe, and Katina went in one-hour shifts, and were exempt from watches until Matt woke up.

T.K. was never far away from Matt either. Katina would play a quiet game with him, such as tic-tac-toe or the like, or doodle him a picture. Joe didn't play, but Gomamon would. They tried to keep his mind off of how bad Matt really was.

Patamon was always right there for T.K., always understood when the small boy cried for his brother.

When Kacie was watching Matt, T.K. would usually try to vent frustration by talking it over with Kari. Kacie was far too worried over Matt to try to cheer T.K. up. She knew that he was Matt's little brother and she ought to try to be his friend, but she had too much on her mind. _I think I worry over Matt as much or more than he does._

Gabumon constantly kept vigil over his Digipartner. He slept when he needed it, but he never left Matt's side.

Two days passed in the same fashion.

Kacie took over for Joe sometime late that evening. Gabumon was already sleeping for the night, and Cabaiyomon had dozed off as well. T.K. had been playing with Goma, who now apologized and bounded off after Joe, who went outside. It was so nice outside that Sora, Mimi, Izzy, Tai and Kari had taken to even sleeping out there. Katina, Joe, and Kacie found it easier to change shifts without disturbing anyone if they slept inside, and T.K. just wanted to be close to Matt.

T.K. was restless, but he did not feel like getting up to do anything else.

Kacie glanced at him, and then turned her gaze back to Matt. Even in his current state, she took the time to admire his face, his hair. It irritated her that the eyes she found so attractive were constantly closed.

_Poor Matt...poor T.K.._

T.K. looked up at her. "Kacie?" he tried, hoping he'd remembered her name correctly.

"Yeah?"

"Is my brother gonna be okay?"

Kacie tilted her head towards him. She was used to him asking that when she was through with her shift, but never at this time. Still, she answered. "Joe's spent the past hour with him, and he knows more about it anyway. You'd be better off asking him."

"Don't you know?"

"Well, T.K., I--I--" She shook her head. The quality that had earned her her Crest rose within her. "What's wrong with me? Of course he will! I can't make you any promises as to when, T.K., but he _will_ be better."

T.K. smiled, and then ran over and gave her a hug. "Thanks, Kacie!"

She managed her first smile since she'd woken up and even giggled a little.

T.K. seemed content after that to sit still and watch Matt. After a while, he fell asleep. Kacie picked him up and laid him in his spot.

She returned to Matt. "Are you ever going to wake up?" she asked him aloud.

* * *

The next day, Kacie was at her shift yet again. She was comparatively alone--Tai had suggested a game of soccer, and everyone was playing except herself, the still-silent Gabumon, and Katina. Even the digimon were trying. Kacie sat parallel to Matt and she could watch both him and the other kids.

Kacie laughed at them. Katina, her back to Kacie but nearer than anyone else, was drawing them, all of the other kids and digimon running around kicking the soccer ball that Tai seemed to always carry. Judging by the shade of orange she was using, she was drawing Izzy at that particular moment.

The soccer game was funny to watch. Palmon was one of the goalies, and used her long tendrils of fingers to her advantage. Patamon, Biyomon and Tentomon could bounce the high kicks off their heads. Agumon had a lot of head to bounce the ball off of, although with his claws he had to be careful when he kicked it so he wouldn't pop it. Havamon could change its direction with a flick of his tail, and Gatomon followed suit when she saw him doing it. Gomamon had a lot of trouble with it until they gave him special permission to use his hands--or front paws, however they figured it. Cabaiyomon could bounce herself over Kacie's head, so she often leapt up and head-butted the ball.

While Kacie was watching, she felt her heart grow lighter. The digimon were funny to watch playing, period, and to hear the kids complain about the digimon was just plain hilarious. Mimi said something about all the flying ones (apparently she could kick pretty high despite her long skirt) and Tai kept warning Agumon what would happen if the ball were to pop.

Kacie was watching Izzy pass the ball to Tentomon, and then she heard a groan.

Instantly she was focused on Matt. _If I talk, it may encourage him to wake up and see what's going on..._ "Matt...Matt...wake up...please...you gotta get up..."

Another groan, louder. He shifted his position slightly, voluntarily for the first time in days.

"Matt...please?" Her eyes were brimming with tears she willed herself not to shed, but a few escaped anyway. _Kacie...pull yourself together...you don't want him to see you all teary._

"Uhnnn...Kacie?" His eyelids cracked open, and then suddenly the eyes Kacie admired were looking up at her. "What just happened?"

" _Just_ happened? You've been out for three days."

He blinked, and cocked himself up on his elbows. His right side felt a little tingly, but there was virtually no pain. "How are--"

"Everyone is fine. Gabumon is sleeping, right there, and everyone else is out there playing soccer."

He smiled. "Good. Hey, are you going to tell me what happened or not?"

"Oh. Yeah. You fell and landed on the rocks of the palace, and scratched up your side, and hit your head. That's why you've been out. Everyone else landed on the grass and so no one else was really hurt."

Matt's main concerns were for his brother. "And T.K.?"

"He's doing just fine except missing you."

Again he smiled. "Then everything is okay." He sighed contentedly. "Kacie..."

_What? Is he finally going to tell me what he thinks of me?_

"Kacie, I..."

Just then there was a yell from the "soccer field." It was T.K. " _Matt!_ Hey, everyone, Matt's awake!"

The soccer game was forgotten, and the ball left behind, as everyone followed T.K. to see for themselves.

* * *

The next day Matt was up and walking around, and even kicked the soccer ball around with T.K. and Tai just to prove that he felt fine. Of course his hand was still sore, but for the most part he was cured.

The next question on everyone's mind was why they were still in the DigiWorld.

That afternoon, an e-mail from Gennai answered that.

Izzy read the e-mail aloud.

_Greetings! You must be wondering why you are all still here. Truth is, I just wanted to give Matt time to wake up, rather than return you to your world to have to explain it. At any rate, congratulations, Kacie!_

Kacie glowed with pleasure. She had not really had time to think over it with all her worry over Matt.

_Now, I know you're all thinking that it will be difficult to keep in contact with Kacie, since you all live in Tokyo, and she lives in Chicago. I have the means to bypass high phone bills and millions of wordy e-mails. Izzy, you need to hook your laptop up to hers and install the attached program. There are sufficient directions in its help files. I need to go feed the fish some pretzels, so goodbye for now, and please recycle!_

Izzy got a cable out of his backpack while Kacie got her laptop out of her duffel and booted it up. He hooked them together and began downloading the file to her hard drive. When it was done, a small icon appeared on her desktop labeled "PORTAL".

"Do I even want to know?" she asked.

"Click it!" Izzy said, having unplugged the connection. "Click it!"

She double-clicked it and on her screen came a very plain program. It had only two items in the menu bar, "Help" and "Shortcuts". Below that there were two bars much like the kind where one enters webpage addresses, one was labeled "Address:" and one "Items to Send:". Next to those, there was a button that said "Transport".

"Simple, that's for sure," Izzy remarked.

She clicked on "Help" and everyone left her alone to read it and master the program.

After about ten minutes she yelled, "I've got it!"

"Huh?" Izzy looked up from his laptop and came over. He was curious as to just what Gennai had sent, so he was eager to see what she "got".

"It's kind of like e-mail, but instead of sending a message, I can send myself, and anyone else I want along with me."

Izzy nodded. He had done similar things in the DigiWorld with the team of DigiDestined.

"It works by sending me to the DigiWorld and then back out to whatever address I've typed in."

Izzy nodded. "I get it. I can do that _within_ the DigiWorld, but not Earth...hey, can I copy your program?"

"Sorry, Izzy, it has one of those Licensing Agreement document things that says I can't copy it."

Izzy was disappointed, but he didn't let it bother him. "Hey, are you going to test it?"

"Of course...whenever we get back to Earth. It won't work here, it said so."

And with that, they were gone.

* * *

They were all in Tokyo, and it was still the same day, still just after school, in the middle of the park.

"Weird," Kacie said. That said it all.

"So now what?" Matt asked. "Are you going on home, Kacie, or what?"

"I left all my schoolbooks at Izzy's house...I emptied them out because I knew I would not need them at your school..."

"Good thing, because if your bag gets any fuller, I won't fit..." Cabaiyomon said.

"Well, come get them, then," Izzy said.

"Okay...bubbye, all of you!"

"If that thing works, we'll expect to be seeing a lot of you!" Matt said, taking T.K. by the hand.

"If it doesn't, you'll see me every day!" Kacie called cheerfully over her shoulder, chasing after Izzy and Katina.

* * *

At the apartment, she stuffed her books into her duffel and she was about to leave when Izzy's mother invited her to stay for one last dinner.

_What can it hurt? My parents have waited this long, another two hours won't kill them._

She sat in Katina's room for a while. Their two digimon sat talking. She knew that she was better friends with Izzy, but she also knew she had to learn to get along with the entire group, and even if Katina was silent, she was intriguing at the least. She asked to see the picture that Katina had drawn the digital day before, of the kids playing soccer.

Katina blushed, but nodded and got it out of her backpack nonetheless.

Kacie stared as the paper was placed in her hands. "This is like a photograph, Cat!"

It was. The main focus of the picture was Izzy passing the ball to Tentomon, and the expressions on everyone's faces were down to a tee. Katina had captured the moment perfectly.

"She's good, huh?" Havamon asked, causing Katina to blush even deeper.

"Havamon..."

 _Captured the moment...only once before in my life have I seen art such as this..._ "Cat, how long have you been drawing?"

Katina shrugged. "All my life..."

Kacie stared at the picture, but was not admiring it. It was worthy of it, but her mind was wandering. "Cat is a nickname, isn't it? And it's not from Catherine or Cathleen, is it?"

Kat frowned. "Why." It wasn't a question.

"Please, Cat...just tell me your whole first name, and spell it."

Katina blinked at her, but did what the girl requested. "Katina. K-A-T-I-N-A."

A light came into Kacie's eyes, but lingered only seconds. "No, that's still impossible."

Cabaiyomon frowned up at her, but said nothing. She had a lot to learn about her Digipartner and her ways of thinking.

Katina just shook her head, and turned to start a new drawing. She paused. "What's impossible." Another statement.

"Oh, before I lived in Chicago, I had a friend...but no. You're too different from her..."

Katina frowned. "But you...Chicago...all your life..."

"Did I ever say I lived in Chicago all my life? No. As a matter of fact, I was telling Matt just the other day about when I lived in Arkansas..."

"Arkansas?" Katina frowned. "You lived in Arkansas?"

"When I was younger, yes..." Kacie flopped backward on the bed. "Although I will say I like Chicago much better--"

Katina barreled on ahead, ignoring Kacie's ramblings. "When?"

Kacie blinked. "Oh, up until about five years ago...my best friend had just moved away, she traveled the world, and her family moved on...my father got promoted, and we moved to Chicago."

"Kacie...You are Kacie _Kensingten_?"

"Last I checked."

"Kacie Kerrianne Juliet Kensingten?"

Kacie sat straight up. "There's no way you could know my _whole_ name! I haven't told anyone my whole name since I told my best friend! None of the DigiDestined...Unless...Kat? Katina Dianne Ashton?"

Katina nodded. "Foxx! I can't believe it!"

"It's you! You're the only one who ever called me that!"

The two girls hugged each other there in the middle of Katina's room.

Their digimon watched, curious but having no clue what was going on.

Izzy walked in to tell them dinner was ready. "Uh...Kat? Kacie-san?"

They let go of each other.

"Anyone care to explain?" Izzy queried.

Katina was very excited in manner and tone, and getting Spanish, Japanese and English all jumbled together. "Izzy! Izzychan, you remember I told you about Foxx? The Americano girl I met in Arkansas, a long time ago? Mi amiga?"

Izzy could barely follow her rapidly moving hands. "Uhh...yeah...what has that got to do with Kacie-san?"

"Kacie _is_ Foxx!" Katina announced triumphantly.

Izzy's eyes widened. He looked at Katina, then Kacie, then back at Katina, and then back at Kacie. "Are you sure?"

"Who else would know both my middle names?" Kacie asked. "And draw like that, and resemble the Kat I knew back then? Of course, she was only ten. We lived in Arkansas at the same time for only about a year..."

"Come on, you two. You can come tell the whole story at the dinner table. Mom and Dad will find this interesting, too..."


	6. Chapter 6

At the dinner table, the two girls explained what had gone on for them to finally put it together.

"I thought you were literally Izzy's sister, Kat. That's why I never thought anything of it, even if you did look somewhat familiar and had the same nickname as before. Izzy simply introduced you as 'Kat' and I assumed it was spelled with a 'C'...although I thought it was an odd coincidence..."

"Well, I never knew you left Arkansas, so when you said your home was Chicago...and you never talked of your family. You were all really close when I knew you before." Suddenly Katina blushed, realizing she had put her old friend on the spot.

"Kat...early last summer...Alaina died in a car wreck."

Katina remembered her friend's impressive older sister. "Oh, Foxx, I'm so sorry..."

"It's okay."

Mrs. Izumi tried changing the subject so as not to upset their guest. "Why does she call you 'Foxx', Kacie-san?"

"Oh! That!" Kacie said. She laughed a little. "When we met I thought Kat was lucky because she could have a nickname from her name that was an animal name. She said the first thing that had popped into her head when she saw my hair was that it was the color of a fox's fur, so she started calling me Foxx--double 'x' on the end, just for fun."

Katina smiled with the memory. "And I called you that so much, I almost forgot you had any other name. When you said you were Kacie, I didn't think anything of it."

"Until today."

"Yup!"

Izzy laughed. Katina had never been this talkative, even when they had met before, unless there was no one else around. Kacie--or rather, _Foxx_ , was bringing out some of her old self.

Suddenly something hit Kacie. "Hey! Kat, what _did_ happen that you live with Izzy and his family now?"

"Uhh...well, a while after we moved away from Arkansas, Mommacita and Papa just left Jules and I...after a couple of foster homes, Mom's old friend, Mrs. Hatek, took us in. That was only a few months ago...and Jules...well, Jules was Jules. I couldn't take it anymore, and when I asked Izzy if he knew of a cheap place to stay, he offered for me to come live here."

Kacie nodded. _Poor Kat. But she seems to be happy here. Really happy._

"This is all so intriguing!" Mrs. Izumi said. "Who ever would have guessed that you two would be reunited like this?" she smiled.

* * *

After dinner, Kacie, Izzy, and Katina sat on the floor of Izzy's room. Kacie booted up her laptop and brought up the program.

"Okay, Izzy, I need your address, and at least one other place where I can appear without causing a riot."

Izzy told her his address and used his computer's GPS to pinpoint a location in the nearby park. She typed in both and showed Izzy how she put them into the program. Under "Shortcuts" there were now two things. One said "Kat and Izzy's Place" and the other said "Tokyo Park".

"Prodigious!" Izzy grinned.

Kacie then entered her own address in the "Address" box, and her name, Cabaiyomon's name, and "duffel" in the "Items to Send" box.

"Now to see if it works..." she reached over and hugged Katina. "I'll come every day I can, after school, and Saturdays, okay?"

"Every day," Katina smiled.

"Come on, Cabaiyo..." The small digimon hopped into her arms. Kacie sighed. "Now I just have to explain to my parents where I disappeared to all the time I was in Tokyo...whoa boy..."

"Good luck," Katina said.

"I'll need it. Bye, Kat, bye, Izzy!"

She reached down to her laptop and tapped the button that clicked the mouse.

And she was gone. Vanished. Disappeared. No lights, no effects, just...gone.

Katina looked at Izzy. "That was abrupt..." she said.

He nodded. "But cool!"

* * *

Kacie materialized right in front of her door, fifteen floors up in the apartment building, Cabaiyomon in her lap, bag beside her, and laptop in front of her.

"Whoa. That's...weird."

"At least it wasn't a rough ride," Cabaiyomon reminded her cheerfully.

Kacie put her laptop in her bag, and then opened the door. _Here goes everything..._

Her house/apartment was really a home built into the top two floors of the apartment building. Her father owned the building and rented out the rest of it, as well as being a businessman.

"Marta?" she called in a low tone. She winced as she heard a dish crash to the floor.

"Kacie? Kacie, is that you?"

"Marta!"

An older woman, stocky in build and short of stature, wearing a black-and-white maid's uniform, entered the hallway. "Kacie Kerrianne Juliet Kensingten, where have you been?"

 _It's so nice to be home!_ "Marta, Marta, can it wait until tomorrow morning? Right now I just want to spend an hour or two in the tub with a book, and then get some much-needed sleep..."

"What is that?" The maid pointed to Cabaiyomon.

Kacie looked down. "This is Cabaiyomon. I'll explain her tomorrow as well. She talks and moves on her own, and she's not a pet. She's a friend."

"Hello!" Cabaiyomon greeted her cheerfully.

"Dear Lord, you weren't kidding..." The woman bent over the creature, staring at her, gingerly reaching out fingertips to touch her mane.

"You can call me Cabaiyo. Kacie does. And I won't bite unless I find out you're an evil digimon."

The woman shrank back. She didn't know what to make of the creature. "A what?"

"Marta, please, tell my parents I'm home and I will explain to all three of you tomorrow..."

Marta stood. "I will get your bath started and give your parents your message. You are too exhausted to do _anything_ tonight?"

Kacie nodded. "You're a doll, Marta. I'd hug you, but then you'd understand why I desperately want that bath."

The woman nodded and turned to do what she got paid to do.

* * *

The next morning Kacie awoke in her own bed and hardly knew where she was. _What is all this stuff on top of me?_ She pushed some of it off, and realized that it was sheets and her blanket.

"Cabaiyo?"

The small digimon was curled up against her stomach. She crawled out from under the blankets, yawned, and opened her eyes. "So that's what a bed feels like," she said.

Kacie smiled and hugged her digimon. "I'm so glad you're here!" she said.

"Why? I never left you, Kacie..."

"Oh, but your being here now proves it wasn't all a dream!"

There was a knock at the door to Kacie's "parlor." "Who is it?" she called.

"Marta!"

"Come on in!"

Marta came through the empty room and entered the bedroom. "Get up and get dressed. Tell me what you want, and what your friend eats, and I'll bring you both breakfast."

"When do my parents want to see me?"

"As soon as possible. Your father won't be leaving for work until you have explained yourself."

"Bring us each a bowl of cereal...Cabaiyo doesn't need a spoon."

Marta just nodded and left.

Cabaiyo sat on the bed while Kacie got dressed in her bathroom. By the time Kacie had combed all the snarls from her long hair, Marta had returned and her digimon was eating the "strange new food." _I should have done my hair last night!_ she reminded herself.

Kacie ate hurriedly, emptied her duffel and Cabaiyomon crawled in.

She walked slowly down the hall to her parent's private dining room.

She entered. Marta was already there, standing next to the door that led to a shortcut to the kitchen. _Good. Now I won't have to repeat it all for her._

Her parents were at the table, her father at the head and her mother to his left, her back to the door Kacie had come in through. Her father was in a gray suit and burgundy tie, and her mother was dressed for company.

Her father stood up. "Kacie, where were you? I had a private detective combing all of Chicago last night--"

"Father, please. Am I not here to explain myself?"

"Well, start, then," he ordered, lowering himself to his chair.

"Only if you promise not to interrupt--no matter how outrageous it sounds."

Her parents nodded their consent, and she spilled the whole story, skipping minor details here and there concerning her feelings towards Matt. And when she was finished, she just stopped. "Well, that's everything."

Her parents looked at her.

There was a moment of silence.

Her father stood again. "Kacie Kerrianne Juliet Kensingten, that is the most ridiculous story I ever heard."

 _How many times do I have to listen to people say my entire name before this is over?_ "Even if I could prove it?"

"You can't," he challenged. Mistake number one.

Kacie smirked. She set her bag on the table, tipped it over, and unzipped it. Out tumbled Cabaiyomon.

"Hello!"

Kacie's mother dropped her fork onto her plate. Her father stared. Kacie had described Cabaiyomon in telling her story, but the fact that she would be there, then, had not clicked in either of the elder Kensingten's minds.

"Proof enough?" she asked. "Father, Mother, meet Cabaiyomon. Cabaiyo, these are my parents."

"Pleased to meet you, parents," Cabaiyomon said cheerfully.

Kacie's father sat down in shock. "Well...Kacie, I--don't know what to say--"

"Don't say anything. You can't go telling people about this, you know. I just want you to know that if I should disappear for lengths of time, I'm in Tokyo. I'll never know when I'll be called to go to the DigiWorld."

Her father was flustered. Kacie enjoyed seeing him in a state she could not recall ever seeing him in before. "Well--Kacie--if this is--is your--destiny--then--we have no right to--to stop you. If you have to save our world--well, then you can--can be gone--as long as you need."

"Wait a minute," her mother said. "Tokyo?"

"All the rest of the DigiDestined live in Tokyo. Including Kat. When I go to the DigiWorld no time passes. Didn't I explain all this to you?"

"You did, but why do you--"

"Mother. They're my friends. I hope to go every day after school to see Kat and all my new friends."

Her mother sighed. "Fine. Go--just go do whatever you want. Gallivant all over a foreign country. Just don't do anything stupid."

"Mo-ther!"

"I suppose that since this is Saturday, you'll be going today?" her mother pressed.

"Well..."

Her father stood once more. "Kacie, go whenever you need to. I wouldn't want anything to happen that could destroy the world, or the Internet. Go have fun with your friends. It seems to me that you do not have many--"

Kacie blinked. "Is that all you care about? The Internet? What about the Digimon? Look, Father, I'm going to do my duty, but the Internet--which, as I recall, you desperately need to keep your business going--is the least of my worries." Kacie picked up Cabaiyomon and spun on her heel, leaving the room.

* * *

Kacie took Cabaiyomon and her laptop to the park, well-hidden in her duffel. She went to a less-ventured-into corner and got its coordinates into her portal program. "Home Park" became the shortcut.

"Why are we coming here?" Cabaiyomon asked her.

"This way, my parents will think that I need to leave the house to use it, when, in fact, that's not true at all. So if they should ever say no, I can just lock myself in my room and go anyway. But only if it was a digital emergency."

Cabaiyomon nodded as Kacie brought up the Internet and quickly found Izzy to be online. They had exchanged all online contact information while in the DigiWorld, and put each other on each other's buddy lists. She started an instant message.

_CityGal14: Yo! Izzy! You there?_

_wIZard15: Kacie? Yes, I am, obviously._

_CityGal14: Yup! It's me! Cool! Got any plans 4 2day?_

_wIZard15: Well, Tai called and thought that we could all get together in the park and play soccer._

_CityGal14: Well, I don't (have plans, I mean)...I thought I might test my portal, though..._

_wIZard15: Come on over, then! Hey, do you play soccer?_

_CityGal14: Nooo...but I'm a fast learner and anything is better than home..._

_wIZard15: OK then. When do you plan to leave?_

_CityGal14: Umm...within the next 5 mins. works 4 me..._

_wIZard15: OK. See you in a few. Bye!_

The instant message cut off and Kacie clicked on her shortcut that took her to the park.

And suddenly, they were there. No ceremony, no wild ride, just...there.

She zipped Cabaiyomon in her bag along with her laptop and then went and sat on a park bench to wait.

Izzy and Katina were first to arrive.

"Kat!" Kacie hugged her friend.

"Foxx!"

Izzy laughed. "Kat, I haven't seen you quite like this since we were little!"

"I haven't been quite like this since I last saw Foxx!" she smiled.

The others arrived as the minutes passed. Sora, Tai and Kari were together, Matt and T.K., and then Joe, and finally Mimi.

They found a large grassy area where there weren't any picnickers. Kacie took off her jean jacket and tied it around her waist by the sleeves. She was immediately taught the basic rules of soccer. At first she found it hard to not use her hands, but she caught on to the gist of it pretty quickly.

Kacie could not help noticing Matt again. He was pretty good, as far as she could tell. Of course, she had to admit, Sora and Tai seemed to be the resident experts, but Matt looked better doing it. _He'd look better than Tai doing anything!_

After the game, Kacie went with Katina and Izzy to their apartment.

She hung out with Katina, catching up on the past five years of "girl stuff" they'd missed sharing, and Izzy spent the time with his laptop.

That evening, Kacie was back in Chicago for dinner, and she had to admit she'd missed Marta's cooking. She sat on her bed to eat, and Marta stayed to keep her company.

"How did your day go?" Marta asked.

"It was a blast! Soccer is more fun than I'd thought. I don't think I'll ever be that good at it, though. I'll leave that to my friends." She shrugged.

Marta smiled. "So just exactly what are your new friends like?"

Kacie was grateful for the woman, and her endeavors to treat her like real family. She had come to think of Marta as her "mom," while Mrs. Kensingten was now just her "mother." She wished her mother would've asked such questions of her--and her mother might have, had Alaina still been alive.

"Oh, Marta, they're wonderful!" Kacie gushed. "There's Kat, of course, you remember her. She hasn't changed a bit, except she talks a little bit less than she did, especially when there's a group around--"

"You mean it's actually possible to talk _less_ than she did before?"

"Oh, Marta, don't be silly. And then there's Izzy--she lives with him and his family. Her parents left, and she and Jules were with one of her mom's friends, but she didn't like it there, so Izzy offered to let her stay with his family. Izzy's cool, he's a computer expert--"

"How old is he?"

"A little bit older than Kat. Almost fifteen--no, just turned fifteen. And then there's Joe, he's studying to be a doctor. He's the oldest of the group, seventeen, I think. He has these glasses that are always sliding down. It's funny. And Mimi--well--she's a ditz. She's into clothes and fashion and such. She's fifteen also, she'll be sixteen in a few months, but she acts twelve. Weird obsession with the color pink--"

"You should talk, Miss Purple," Marta teased.

Kacie glanced around her room. Purple wallpaper, purple carpeting. White furniture. "At least I _wear_ other colors."

"True. Go on."

"Then Tai--I guess I should have said him first, because he's the leader. He's fifteen--halfway to sixteen. Me and him--well--we're civil. That's about as close as it gets. He ignored me at first, and now he understands that I'm part of the team, too. I understand that he's a major pain _but_ he was destined to be the leader, so I have to get along with him. I tied his shoelaces together in the middle of the night and got away with it." Kacie said the last sentence as if it was a point of pride, and grinned evilly.

"Kacie..."

"He deserved it. He thought I was incapable of taking a watch. A watch, Marta, is when one person stays up and if that persons sees or hears anything bad happening they wake up everyone else so they can fight."

"Sounds simple enough."

"T.K. and Kari could do it if they could miss the hour's sleep. Oh, yeah, back to my friends. Kari is Tai's little sister. She's really sweet, about nine, but other than that, I don't know much about her. She's got a gift of foresight, to some extent. It's through her Crest--I don't completely understand how it works. I just know it does, 'cause I saw it. And then T.K.. He's also nine, and he's an _a-dor-a-ble_ little guy! He's got the whole blue-eyed-blond thing going on, and...you'll just have to meet him."

"When might that happen?" Marta asked dryly.

"I have the portal. I'm pretty sure I can bring friends with me if I want to."

"Mmm. Go on."

"Then Sora. She's Tai's girlfriend. Nobody told me, and maybe it's not official, but it's _obvious_. They're always together, and...well...it's just obvious. She's fifteen."

"That makes eight. Didn't you say there were ten, counting you?"

"Yes. One more. T.K.'s older brother, Matt. He's sixteen, as of about four months ago. He and I...got to know one another pretty well. I spent a lot of time with him. Remember I told you--and my parents--this morning he's the one that was injured when we defeated Ferodramon?"

"Somewhat." Marta wavered her hand a bit.

"At any rate, Joe took care of the wounds right off, but Matt was still unconscious so he had to have somebody watching him all the time. For _three whole days_. Joe, Kat and I took turns."

"You?"

Kacie nodded. "I volunteered. Joe showed me what to do, it wasn't that hard--"

"That's not like you," Marta said.

"Matt's...special to me, Marta."

Marta nodded. "Must be."

"Well...he...he's... _noticed_ me...I _think_." Kacie hung her head, avoiding Marta's eyes.

Marta shook her head. "I always found those men confusing. Don't ask me."

Kacie just rolled her eyes. She wanted to figure men out for herself anyway. _It's more fun that way._

Cabaiyomon finally lifted her head from her own plate. "Thank you, Marta."

Marta cocked an eyebrow. "It'll be a while before I get used to you talking," she informed the small creature.

"Oh well. That's okay." Cabaiyomon smiled at her.

Kacie smiled a little as well. "Just wait--if you think this is hard to get used to, wait until you see her digivolve--"

Marta just shook her head and took their plates.

* * *

Kacie hung out with Katina every day that week after school. Kacie had no idea how _pretty_ of a city Tokyo was until Katina and Izzy got to show her around.

Early in the week Mimi announced that the victory party she'd decided to throw was to be held that Saturday evening--for DigiDestined Only.

On Saturday, Kacie came to Katina and Izzy's place and walked with them to Mimi's house. When they got to her backyard, Mimi was out there, being the "perfect hostess." Kari, Sora and Tai, and Joe had also arrived. Mimi had music going and snacks set out. The almost-setting sun provided a perfect backdrop for the entire scene.

It was only a little while before Matt arrived, T.K. in tow. The younger boy immediately ran to join Kari.

Kacie noticed that Matt's arm was completely healed up, and she knew his hand was none the worse for a few scars, although tonight, as usual, it was hidden by his glove. She remembered that Joe had said he should be grateful he had been wearing his tough leather gloves at the time or a lot worse could have happened.

For the most part, the kids danced--not in couples, the music wasn't right for that--and the digimon stayed close to the snacks. Gatomon tried to teach Havamon to dance, and had some success, but not enough that she dared to take him for a spin across the "dance floor."

Kacie had fun. She had never danced before, but she got out there and got into the groove, and no one else could tell. Mimi showed her a few steps and the two of them pretty much led the way.

Even Joe tried it, but he got more laughs than compliments. He shrugged them off and kept going anyway. Gomamon sat at the snack table, his jaw a few inches below where it was normally. "I wouldn't have believed it if I didn't see it."

"Who's the stick-in-the-mud now, Gomamon?" Joe called triumphantly.

At one point Mimi shut off the music and let Matt play his harmonica. He made it up as he played, and he had to make stuff up fast at the least. Kacie liked the sound of it, the riffs and twangs. _Definitely something I could get used to hearing!_

After that, the party began to slow down, as did the music. They broke off in groups to chat quietly. Tai and Sora continued to dance, now to the waltzy stuff. Izzy turned to Katina. "I know we are not going out anymore, but that actually looks like fun, so would you have any objections to dancing with your brother?"

Katina smiled. "Of course not."

Izzy was glad--it was not often she had a chance to show off her natural grace, something he wished he could see more often.

Mimi, Joe, T.K., Kari, and Matt were around the snack table with the digimon.

Kacie sat by herself, leaning against the trunk of a tree in the darkness. The sun had long since set and the stars twinkled above. She sighed.

Cabaiyomon left the food and came and sat beside her. "What is it?"

"Oh, any minute now, Matt will ask Mimi to dance, and then I'm finished."

"Finished?"

"No date. T.K. is just a _little_ bit too young, and Joe--well, even if I liked him at all in _that_ way--which I don't--he's crazy over Mimi and so he's also gonna be all depressed when Matt asks her."

Cabaiyomon blinked. "He's coming this way, Kacie--"

"Who? Joe?" Kacie was aghast that he might _actually_ ask her. _What? Does he want to clear the way for Matt and Mimi, or is he just desperate?_

"No, it's Matt," Cabaiyomon reassured.

She sighed, relieved. For a second the stars reflected in her eyes, but they vanished as a bitter thought entered her head. "I swear, if he asks me what he should say to Mimi...hold me down, okay? I don't want to cause more work for Joe."

Cabaiyomon just gave her a helpless look. She had no idea what the girl was saying.

Matt was carrying something that was about the size of a book. As he got closer, she could tell it _was_ a book, although _what_ book she had no idea.

She stood to her feet. He took her by the arm and pulled her around to the other side of the tree. "Kacie--"

"What is it?" She dared not say much more, for fear she betray her inner self. If it _was_ Mimi he wanted, who was she to stand in his way?

"I--I have something, for you." He pushed the book into her hands.

She frowned, and looked him in the eyes. Then she looked down at the book and gasped. "'Romeo and Juliet'; complete and unabridged, notes of explanation for today's reader...where did you _get_ this?"

Her eyes searched his, but he tried to avoid her gaze. "One night on the phone with Izzy, telling me the best places to buy books on the 'Net...we had a doozy of a time ordering it in English...and then three days hoping it would get here in time for tonight..."

"Does this mean--"

He looked her in the eyes and nodded. "Yeah. It does."

"But I thought--Joe said you liked Mimi--"

"Mimi? That ditz? Who wants her?"

Kacie laughed a little. The stars had re-entered her eyes. "Actually, Joe does--that's why he told me that--I asked why he didn't tell her, and he said--"

Matt raised a hand to stop her. "It doesn't matter. Do you...would you...care to dance?"

Kacie was thrilled. "Would I? Come on, let's go!"

They went out on the floor hand-in-hand. The music was still slow. Kacie felt his arm fall into place around her waist and she took his other hand. They danced close. Kacie had never been that close to any guy before in her life. She didn't pay any attention to her dancing, she just flowed with the music, and watched his eyes.

Had she had eyes for anything besides Matt, she might have noticed Joe practically float to Mimi and ask for a dance. Mimi leapt into his arms as her yes.

T.K., sitting atop the snack table, watched all the older kids dancing. He turned to Kari, who was sitting next to him. "You think we oughta try that?"

Kari wrinkled her nose. "I don't know...looks kind of boring."

"We could do the hokey-pokey..."

She picked up a half-sandwich from one of the trays. She looked at him. In unison, they voiced their opinion.

"Naaah."

* * *

The party finally died off. Tai offered to take T.K. home for Matt. Matt accepted--he needed the time with Kacie. At first Tai's offer confused Sora, until she remembered that T.K.'s home was between hers and Tai's. It would give Tai an excuse to walk her all the way home. They would drop off Kari, and then T.K., and then they would be alone until they got to her place.

Joe went home--alone, but happy with the fact that Mimi was his.

Katina and Izzy walked on home, knowing Kacie could leave for America from anywhere at any time she wanted, and that she probably wasn't ready to leave just yet. Joe had not been the only one to notice Matt's display of affection.

Matt and Kacie left together. Her bag was slung over her shoulder, laptop and digimon inside. Tsunomon bounced along after them. They walked toward the park, slowly, ignoring the other people they passed as they went along. Matt had some idea of how her portal worked and he knew that when they got to the park she would be leaving.

"Thank you...for the book," she said.

"It was worth it," he told her. "For you."

She smiled. "I...I had a really great time tonight." _Aside from the part where I fretted over you liking Mimi._

"You want to do it again, sometime?"

"Anytime." She smiled up at him.

He returned the smile, and took her hand.

She blushed in the darkness, and leaned against him. He let go of her hand and placed his arm around her waist. They turned a street corner, and the park came into sight.

_Aww, man! Just when we were getting to the good part!_

At the gate, he let go of her, and she was about to turn and go on home, but he caught her hand and drew her close to him. He didn't want her to go just yet. "Kacie..."

"Yes?"

"When? When can we see each other again?"

"E-mail me. I never have plans. Anytime you want."

"Okay. I'll do that." He looked down. "Soon."

She put a hand on his arm. "Very soon, please."

He pulled her even closer, bent down and their lips met. Kacie sharply drew in a breath in shock, but did not pull away from his touch. It was her first kiss, and she had every intention of enjoying it as long as she could. It got deeper as the seconds passed. After a minute he broke away, but not because he wanted to. It was late, and he knew his dad would be upset if it got much later.

She smiled at him once more, and then turned and left. She didn't trust herself to say anything.

"Tomorrow afternoon? Meet you here?" he called after her.

She paused, and turned back to face him. "Wouldn't miss it! I'll be here at two!" she called back.


End file.
